A Hero's Resolve
by Thecactusman
Summary: After losing in the Sinnoh League, Ash starts a new journey alone. After thee years have passed, he bumps into Scott who tells him about an upcoming tournament. Deciding to reunite with his friends and end his current journey, Ash agrees to participate. With the best trainers the world over participating, does Ash have what it takes to pull off the victory? Ash/Anabel
1. Chapter 1

_**This is the same story as before, just after a little more editing. I will not change any of the old Author's notes, but some aspects of the story may change. The new AN's will be italicized like this is. Anyways, here goes.**_

**Chapter 1**

**Well, this is my first attempt at a Pokémon story; hopefully you like it.**

**So, I have seen several stories about Ash leaving for a few years and then returning to compete in some big competition thing and reunite with his friends and all that good stuff. I had a few idea's of my own I wanted to try out, so yeah, here it is.**

**As for my writing habits, I would like to be able to update weekly, but my life is rather complicated as of right now and will be for some time. Until things settle down, I may not be able to update too often.**

**If you decide you hate my story and think it is terrible and fun stuff like that, stop reading and find a story you do like. No story can make everybody happy.**

**If, on the other hand, you have constructive criticism to offer, please let me know. **

**Anyways, I have no clue how good this story will be or what exactly it has in store, but for now at least, here it is.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. **

-The streets of Viridian City-

As the man walked through the city, he looked at how the world had changed. It had been a year since he had last wondered through civilization and three years since he had spent any large amount of time in it. Technology seemed to be everywhere now, not just in the major cities with large companies running them.

The man tried to take everything in and enjoy this trip through Viridian City, but many of the people he passed were giving him the same looks he was giving the high-tech city he walking through. He couldn't blame them for it, he did stick out like a sore thumb after all.

He was wearing very worn clothes and had an aura of ruggedness around him that the city folk simply didn't recognize. The man wore a beat-up pair of hiking boots as well as some ragged blue jeans. He had a plain gray t-shirt on under a dark gray jacket. The jacket was only partly zipped up and the hood covered the man's head. If you looked closely though, you could see some black hair lying down on his forehead right above his brown eyes. He was a little over six feet tall and appeared to be quite sturdy and durable. He had a physique that most would find quite intimidating if it wasn't for the fact that peaceful vibes seemed to emanate from the man.

What caught people's attention as much as the man though, were the two Pokémon that were travelling with him. On his shoulder was a yellow mouse like Pokémon that appeared to be as intimidating as his trainer. The mouse had on a hard face and had a large scar on the side of its stomach. At the man's side walked a massive black doglike Pokémon. It had large silver horns as well as silver rings around its ankles and on its back. It had a red underbelly and snout as well. Unlike with the trainer and the Pikachu, the dog scared people away. It glared at anyone who looked at the man for too long and growled at them if the glare wasn't enough.

The man had one hand in a pocket and kept his other one on the Houndoom at his side, using it to calm the black dog down and prevent it from attacking anyone.

As they walked out of the city, the man turned to his Pikachu and spoke, "Well buddy, it's been a while since we were in a city, but things sure have changed a lot haven't they?"

The little yellow mouse turned to look at his trainer and smiled, "Pika pi chu pika!" it exclaimed.

The man grinned at the yellow mouse and gave his head a little rub. The black dog even let out a bark that almost sounded like laughter.

As the trio was almost into the forest surrounding the city, a voice spoke up from behind them, "My my, that is quite the impressive looking Houndoom you have there. The Pikachu looks pretty impressive as well."

The man turned around and saw two people walking towards him, both of whom he recognized. He silently prayed that they wouldn't recognize him. A rather large middle-aged man with a Hawaiian shirt on tried to approach the man, but stopped when the man's Houndoom growled at him.

The man placed his hand on the Houndoom's head to calm it, and then smiled at the two people. "Hello, sorry about my Houndoom, he is rather protective of me. Anyways, is there anything I can do for you?"

The older man stuck his hand out with a friendly smile on his face, "Hey, my name is Scott!" He exclaimed rather joyfully. "This here is my friend Lucy. Anyways, I enjoy watching good battles and meeting strong trainers, so I was just wondering if your Houndoom was as strong as it looks."

The young lady who was with Scott smiled at the man as well, "As Scott told you, I'm Lucy. I too was wondering about just how strong your Houndoom was, as well as that Pikachu of yours. Is there any chance I could interest you in a battle? I assure you I am no pushover."

The man shook Scott's hand and smiled back at the pair, "You wouldn't happen to be the Pike Queen, would you?"

The young lady smiled, "I see you've heard of me before. Well to answer your question I am indeed none other than the infamous Pike Queen of the Battle Frontier."

Scott grinned as well, "And I am the man behind the Battle Frontier. I scout around for powerful trainers and try to expand the art of Pokémon battles."

Although the man wanted to leave before the two recognize him, he never could turn down a battle. He looked at his Houndoom who grinned at the man before the man turned back to Lucy and answered, "I would love to have a battle with you, however, Pikachu doesn't battle. At least not right now. If you wish to have a one-on-one battle against Houndoom though, I am more than willing to participate."

Lucy grinned at the man and walked back a ways to open up a field of battle between them. Scott walked to the middle and looked at the man, "You wouldn't happen to have a name, would you?"

The man grinned sheepishly, "Sorry, forgot to introduce myself. Yes I have name, although you can call me Five."

Scott seemed surprised by this name and spoke up, "Really? You are the man known as Five? I have heard all about your exploits. This should be a good battle then."

Now it was the man's turn to be surprised, "You know about my exploits? I didn't realize that anyone knew of the things I accomplished. I always believed that that was kept on the down low."

Scott grinned, "I am a man with much influence, although your deeds have been kept secret from the public, I have been made aware of them. Anyways, enough talk, I want to see a battle." He then raised his arms, "This will be a one-on-one battle between Lucy and Five. There will be no time limit and the battle is over once one of the trainers' Pokémon is no longer able to battle. Begin." He then swung his arms down announcing the start of the battle.

The man, now known as Five, signaled his Houndoom to take the field for battle. With a mighty roar, the powerful Pokémon did just that. "Okay Houndoom, take the field and prepare for battle. This should be fun."

Lucy then grabbed a pokeball and expanded it before throwing it out, "Seviper, take the field." With that, a large snakelike Pokémon appeared on the field and proceeded to glare at Houndoom.

Five spoke up, "First move goes to the challenger, so have at it."

"Seviper, use poison tail," Lucy called out. Seviper then shot towards Houndoom at a surprising speed with its tail glowing purple, preparing to strike.

Five called out to his Pokémon, "Houndoom, dodge the blow and follow up with a quick dark pulse!"

Houndoom immediately tensed his legs and prepared a dark ball in his mouth. As Seviper's tail swung at him, the hound jumped to the side and fired a wave of dark energy towards the snake.

"Seviper, dodge it and use sludge bomb." The snake attempted to slither out of the way of the dark blast, but was not able to completely avoid it. The attack hit the snake on its side, causing it to cry out in pain before recovering itself enough to launch a barrage of poison towards the black dog.

"Houndoom, counter with flamethrower and then get in close to use iron tail and crunch." Houndoom then opened its mouth, spewing a massive wave of fire at the oncoming poison attack, stopping it in its tracks and then exploding. As the smoke covered the field, Houndoom's tail began glowing white and his teeth took on a sinister glow as the massive dog prepared to launch his two attacks. Then, before the smoke cleared, he charged in towards the snake and hit it in the head with a full power iron tail. As the snake was being launched by the attack, the hound caught the snake in his teeth with a powerful crunch attack as well.

Seviper cried out in pain, as he had not seen the attacks coming due to the smoke. This had allowed Houndoom to score a pair of critical hits on him. When the smoke finally cleared, it revealed Houndoom to be standing next to a fainted Seviper.

Scott raised his hand and announced, "Seviper is unable to battle, the winner is Houndoom and Five!"

Lucy recalled her Pokémon and thanked it for its work. Five called Houndoom back to his side and walked towards Lucy to shake hands. As they shook hands, Lucy spoke, "That was a terrific battle. Your Houndoom is quite powerful. By chance, are you going to be participating in the world championships in a month?"

Five got a questioning look on his face, "What world championships?"

Lucy laughed, "You haven't heard about them? Where have you been this past year? It has been the biggest talking point around for the last year. You should look into it, with your skill, I'm sure you would do quite well."

"I hate to interrupt you guys, "Scott said, not sounding very sorry, "but I was wondering if I could have a word with Five in private. Lucy, you can head back to the city, the meeting will take place in a couple hours."

Lucy smiled, "Sure Scott. And Five, I hope we can battle again someday, although the next time, I'm going to win." With that, she turned around and headed back to the city.

Five turned to face Scott who had quite the smile on his face. Based upon this, Five knew that Scott had figured out who he was and he inwardly groaned. "What can I do for you Scott? You wanted to talk?"

Scott grinned even more, "Yes I did. You see, it has been several years since I last talked to you, so I wanted to catch up with one of my favorite trainers of all time. How are you doing Ash?"

The man, now known to be Ash, sighed, "How did you know it was me?"

"Well, the Pikachu on your shoulder made me think it was you. Also, there is the fact that you are the only person I have ever met who would be crazy enough to take on Team Rocket alone. I was wondering if maybe we could talk a little, maybe you could tell me about how you have been these last three years as well as what you have been up to? Also, I want to talk to you about the offer I made you several years ago as well as the world championships that are coming up in a month."

"Okay Scott, I will talk to you, but is there any chance you can keep our meeting a secret?"

"Sure I can. I respect your privacy, although I am curious as to why you want this to remain a secret. Your friends have been trying to find you for quite some time now, but no one knows where you are or what you have been doing. If it wasn't for the letters you send to your mother once a month, no one would even know that you were alive."

Ash sighed, "Well, I didn't want to be alone, and I don't want my friends to worry about me, but I started this journey alone and wasn't planning on meeting up with my friends again until after I had completed it. The only problem was figuring out what constituted the completion of this journey. Would you mind telling me about this world championship that is taking place in a month? I'm wondering if I could use that as a way to finish my current journey and reunite with my old friends."

Scott grinned, "This world championship is huge. Normally, every year each region holds its own Pokémon League tournament to find the strongest trainer in the region. Each region also has its own elite four and champion. People finally got sick of not knowing who the true strongest trainer was, so they decided to hold a tournament every four years that would determine the strongest trainer in the world. In order to participate, you need to have made it into the top 16 of any league tournament if you are a normal trainer. Other ways to get in are to be a gym leader, elite four member, or champion. Also, all of my frontier brains will be participating as well."

Ash got a big smile on his face along with his Pikachu and Houndoom. "That sounds like a wonderful tournament for us. Since I haven't been doing any gym battles lately, I can't participate in any of the leagues anyway, but since I have made it to the top 16 in multiple leagues, I can enter this super tournament and when I win the whole thing, I will be the greatest Pokémon master in the world!"

Scott smiled, "Calm down there Ash. It's good to see you haven't lost your enthusiasm for battling and Pokémon, but if you enter that way, everyone will know that you are Ash. You told me you wanted to remain anonymous until the end of this journey. Since the man known as Five has never made it to the top 16, you cannot enter as him in this tournament."

Ash frowned, "That is a problem. I guess I could enter as me, but I was hoping to keep my identity a secret for a little longer before reuniting with my old friends. Hmm…"

"Don't worry Ash, I have an idea for how you can enter this tournament as Five. Before I tell you though, I would like to know about what happened to Pikachu as well as what you have been doing these past three years."

Ash sighed, "Okay, I will tell you the short story about what happened. After the Sinnoh league, all of my previous travelling companions were out travelling with different people, no room for me alongside them due to the romantic elements between them and their companion. Brock was off in school to become a Pokémon doctor, so I couldn't travel with him either. I also had no clue what I wanted to do when I travelled some more.

"Eventually, I decided to just wing it. I did what I always do at the beginning of a new adventure and left every Pokémon except for Pikachu at the lab and headed out on my own in Kanto again. I figured I would just go wherever my feet took me. A few days into my journey, I was ambushed by a large group of Team Rocket grunts and a few higher ups as well. Like always, they were going after Pikachu.

"At the time, Pikachu was my only Pokémon, so the battle didn't go too well. We managed to defeat all of their Pokémon, but by that time, both Pikachu and me were exhausted while the grunts still had plenty of energy. They tried to take Pikachu by force. Some things happened and Pikachu wound up taking a knife to the stomach.

"As soon as they critically injured Pikachu, they decided he would never be able to fight for them, so they left us in the forest. I tried to get Pikachu to a Pokémon Center, but I didn't have enough energy and wound up passing out. This is where Houndoom comes in. He was still a Houndour at the time, but he ran off and got help for Pikachu. After that, he decided to travel with me and help get back at Team Rocket for what they did. I decided that my goal for my current travels was to destroy Team Rocket once and for all.

"For the next year, I did nothing but train and gather Pokémon that wished to help me shut down Team Rocket for good. After a year, we began interfering with them and their operations, shutting down as much as we could. It was around that time that I took the name Five. Since Team Rocket knew me as Ash and who my friends were, if I went around as Ash and messed with them, it would put my friends and family in danger. I decided on the name Five and went around causing trouble for Team Rocket.

"After another year, I decided I was ready to destroy Team Rocket for good, so along with my Pokémon, I went to their main base and attacked it. I left four of my Pokémon outside to prevent anyone from escaping and went in with Pikachu on my shoulder and Houndoom at my side. Together, we defeated every Team Rocket member in sight as well as finding Giovanni. He tried to escape, but all of his Escape vehicles had been destroyed by my Pokémon. He finally gave in and battled me.

"Houndoom defeated every one of his Pokémon and then knocked him out. I then alerted the police about what I had done and then left the scene before they could arrive."

Scott looked at me, "Okay, so that was a year ago. If defeating Team Rocket was your goal, why didn't you return to your friends after you defeated them?"

Ash looked down, "After being gone for two years with no contact with them, I was scared of how they would react. Whether they would be mad at me for just leaving or if they even liked me anymore. I decided I would train for a tournament and reveal myself then to deal with the consequences of having disappeared. For the last year, I have been on Mount Silver, training and living there."

Scott grinned, "Well then, I think my idea will actually work pretty well for you then. You said that after Sinnoh you didn't know what to do with yourself. You didn't really have a set goal or destination. This tournament will give you a chance to prove yourself as well as serve as an end to your current journey, but what about after this is over?"

Ash looked at Scott quizzically, "What does that have to do with this? I have no clue what I want to do after this, but I will figure that out when the time comes. I will probably just travel around and look for challenges to complete and such. Why?"

"Well Ash, remember when you beat the Battle Frontier? I offered you a position as a battle brain? If you become a battle brain, you can enter the tournament as Five, protecting your identity. It will also give you something to do after the tournament. With your power, you would become the final brain, or the second to last one. That would give you very few challengers allowing you to travel as much as you wanted to. It would also give you something to do and work for. You could also have all of your Pokémon with you at your battle facility, not just the six you are currently limited to. It would open up a whole new world for you to take part in. You don't need to answer me now, but if you want to enter the tournament as Five, you will need to answer me within a week."

Ash froze as he heard what Scott was proposing. After he had initially beaten the Battle Frontier, he hadn't wanted to join them because he wanted to continue travelling with his friends. Exploring and adventuring. Now that he was older and more experienced, he could see the logic in Scott's proposal. Working as a Frontier Brain would provide him with something to keep him motivated all the time as well as allow him to continue travelling around as he wanted to. He would be a little restricted as to how much travelling he could do, but it wouldn't limit him too much. Overall, Ash decided it was actually a pretty good idea.

After thinking on it for a few minutes, he turned back to face Scott, "That sounds like a good idea actually. I think I will do just that. Enter me in the tournament as Five, I will be your newest Battle Brain."

Scott grinned at him and shook his hand, "Awesome! I know you won't regret this decision. I will get you registered for the tournament. Once you show up, I will have paperwork for you to fill out in order to be a Battle Brain. Now, is there anything you need before I go?"

Ash thought about it for a few seconds before responding, "Where is this tournament going to be? If I'm going to participate, I need to know where I'm supposed to go."

"Ah yes, of course. The tournament is going to be at the Indigo Plateau. They have spent the last year remodeling the place so that it could host this huge tournament. The plan is to have it rotate through all of the different leagues, so in four years, it will be held in Sinnoh, then Hoenn. I don't the full order of it, but those are the first three locations for the tournament. Anyways, be at the Indigo Plateau in a month for the tournament and I will meet you there."

"Thanks Scott," Ash said. "I will make sure to be there. Once I win the tournament and become a Battle Brain, I will be the greatest Pokémon master ever."

As Scott turned around to leave, he had one last thing to say. "Don't go thinking this will be easy for you Ash. I know how good you are, but some of your old rivals will be taking place in this tournament, such as Paul. Also, the league champions aren't pushovers either. I also believe I heard a rumor that your old friend Max made it to the final 16 in the Hoenn Pokémon league and will be participating in this tournament. You might be good Ash, but there will be many challenges for you to face during this tournament."

Ash grinned, "That's good, it's been a while since I had a real challenge. Hopefully someone in this tournament can push me a little." With that, Ash walked off into the forest while Scott went back into the city.

-In the city at the meeting Scott mentioned-

Gathered in a large conference room around a fancy Mahogany table sat seven powerful Pokémon trainers. At the head of the table sat a rather large older man wearing a Hawaiian shirt.

After looking at each other with serious expressions and no noise for several minutes, the man we know as Scott smiled. He raised his arms and brought them out in a welcoming manner before speaking, "Hey guys, thanks for making it to this conference. I'm sure you are wondering why I brought you all here and I will get to that in a minute. First, I want to ask: How have you all been doing lately?"

For the next couple minutes, the seven Frontier Brains exchanged pleasantries and greeted one another. After a while though, the oldest person at the table noticed that a certain dark haired Pike Queen wasn't being overly enthusiastic about everything, instead watching Scott the whole time. The old man turned to the younger lady, "What seems to be troubling you Lucy?"

That silenced the other brains, as they too wanted to know what was on her mind. Lucy sighed and spoke up, "Nothing is troubling me, I'm just thinking about the battle I lost before coming here."

A rather gruff and powerfully built man spoke up, "We lose battles all the time, it goes with the job, what makes this one any different?"

Lucy smiled at the man, "Thanks Noland, but this was different. It was a one-on-one battle and he completely destroyed me. I didn't land a single hit against his Pokémon and he defeated my Seviper."

Now all of the brains were looking at her. It wasn't uncommon to lose a battle, but to be beaten so soundly while being so powerful yourself is something that is incredibly rare for the brains. Finally a purple haired girl spoke up, "Who was this trainer? He sounds like an interesting guy."

Before Lucy could respond, Scott broke in, "Ah, thanks for bringing up this topic, Lucy. I was going to get to that in a little bit. I would prefer it if you kept the man's identity and Pokémon a secret for now. That man, after all, is going to be the eighth battle brain of the frontier."

At that all of the brains turned to Scott and looked at him in surprise. After a little bit, the old man spoke up, "Scott, if this man is going to be a battle brain, why can't we know who he is? Also, what qualifies him to be a brain, did he defeat the Battle Frontier before?"

Scott grinned, "You can't know who he is because he will be taking part in the upcoming championship tournament. I feel like it will be more exciting if you don't know who the new brain is until he reveals it himself, in order to keep you all on your toes. As for what qualifies him to be a brain, just like all of you, he is a powerful trainer with a love of Pokémon and battling. He also single-handedly defeated Team Rocket a year ago."

Once again, gasps could be heard from the Frontier Brains. After getting a good look at their shocked faces, Scott chuckled before continuing. "I see that was rather surprising information to you all. Not many were made aware of this feat as nothing was known about the trainer other than a name. In case the man turned out to be a rival criminal, his name was left off all reports made to the public and general population. I was made aware of the man because I am a person who exists in many of the higher circles of the league and the police. I was sworn to secrecy though, to not tell anyone about it. Anyways, now that I have met the guy and learned about his past, I can assure you he is a good guy and will make a fine addition to the Battle Frontier."

After digesting this news for a little bit, another older man spoke up. He was dressed in a green suit with a red collar and had a look that demanded respect. "Okay, so it seems you have decided he will join and it doesn't matter what we say. Since I trust your judgment, I will accept him. What I want to know is what his rank will be once he officially joins us. Will he be the new final brain or will he fit somewhere into the middle of it all?"

"Ah yes, thanks for bringing that up as well, Brandon," Scott said. "His final position will be determined depending on where he finishes in this tournament. I feel confident that he will make a strong showing and make it to be one of the top three brains in the frontier. I feel there a decent chance he might do well enough to take the position of final brain. If you want to be guaranteed to keep your rank as the final boss, so to speak, you need to not lose to anyone because I can assure you that this man is rather gifted in terms of battling and raising Pokémon."

There were some murmurs going about the group now, but they all seemed to accept the fact that a new brain would join them and that he was quite powerful. After a few minutes of light discussion, Scott spoke up once more. "The other thing I wanted to say is that this tournament will be a chance to solidify our reputation as an organization. Currently, we are best known for who has conquered us. With only the strongest trainers able to do this, it allows us to have a reputation of strength. With this tournament, we will not be known for who has beaten us, but whom we have beaten. This is a chance to show that we are a group of elite trainers dedicated to the art of the Pokémon battle and the love of Pokémon in general. So, have fun and battle your hardest. This will be a fun tournament."

With that, Scott walked out of the conference room leaving seven excited and determined Frontier Brains to contemplate the near future. As soon as he was gone, six heads turned to look at Lucy. After a few seconds had passed, she began to get uncomfortable with the attention. She tried to not look at anyone and spoke up, "What? What do you want? Why are you all looking at me?"

After a couple of seconds a young blonde girl spoke up, "So I know that Scott wants to keep the guys identity a secret in order to annoy us, but I'm really curious about him. If he is as strong as you say he is, I want to battle him. Also, what can you tell us about him?"

Lucy sighed, "Greta, there isn't much I can say. I can't give you a name or tell you which Pokémon he used. As you have probably figured out, it is a boy. I couldn't really tell how old he was. He could have been 15 or he could have been 40. It was hard to tell. It was clear that he cared deeply for his Pokémon and his Pokémon had the utmost respect for him. When it came to the battle, he didn't pull any punches. Also, as much as Scott wants the man to remain anonymous, I'm pretty sure you guys won't have any trouble figuring out who he is once the competition starts. I also feel like there is something about him that Scott hasn't told us yet. Regardless, with a competitor as strong as he is, I need to go train some more before the competition, so I'm out of here. See you guys later and good luck with training."

Before anyone could ask any more questions about the man, Lucy left the room. Over the next couple of minutes, most of the other brains left as well. Finally, there were only two left. They were both young ladies; one had blond hair that went down to just below her ears while the other had purple hair of about the same length but was a little longer in the back.

The blonde girl turned to the purple-headed one, "What are you thinking about Anabel? You seem to be deep in thought about something."

Anabel shook her head to clear her mind, "It's nothing. Don't worry about it Greta. I was just thinking back to all of the challengers that have beaten me as well as looking ahead to the tournament and thinking about the challenges it holds in store."

"You can't lie to me Anabel, I know there is more to it than that. Is there a certain trainer you're hoping to see again?"

At the faint blush that appeared on Anabel's cheeks, Greta assumed she was right but before she could pester her friend anymore Anabel spoke up. "Fine, you're right. I'm hoping to find a certain trainer at this tournament. He beat the Battle Frontier four years ago and then went on to explore Sinnoh. After that, he pretty much disappeared. With his love of battling and Pokémon, I'm hoping to see him at this tournament. With talk of a new brain who happens to be immensely powerful and cares deeply for his pokemon, I couldn't help but wonder if it was him."

Greta got a mischievous smile on her face before answering back, "If I didn't know better, I'd say that you have a crush on Ash Ketchum." When Anabel's blush deepened, Greta grinned even wider. "Oh my, so it is him. Well, now I hope he's at the tournament too, just so I can give you a hard time about it."

Anabel groaned, "Please don't. I don't even know if I still like him. It's been four years since I last saw him and he could have changed. Besides, when I met him, he was the most clueless person ever when it came to the matter of love. Now, before you can torture me anymore, I'm off to go train for the tournament. You heard Scott, he expects the best from us."

With that, the last two Frontier Brains left the meeting hall and went off to do their final training for the tournament.

-Petalburg City, Hoenn. Two weeks later-

In a forested area, just outside of town, we find a young man wearing glasses a green short sleeve shirt and shorts. He is standing in a clearing with six pokemon before him. There is a Grovyle, a Kirlia, a Swellow, a Mightyena, a Vigoroth, and a Crawdaunt.

The boy looks down at his pokemon and speaks, "Okay guys, we have been training really hard these past few months to prepare for this upcoming tournament. Now, we have two weeks left before it begins. Although our chances of winning aren't good, at the very least we can show the world that we are better than we are believed to be. We will give them everything we have and then give them some more. Whatever happens, I'm proud of all of you for everything that you have done."

All of the pokemon roared in approval at the little speech and the sound of a single person clapping came from behind the boy. Startled, the boy spun around and came face to face with a beautiful brunette girl. Young lady really, but to the boy, she is just an annoying big sister. The girl looked down at the boy and spoke, "I'm proud of you Max. You have come a long way during your journey and now you have a group of wonderful and strong pokemon beside you. Anyways, you are going to have to finish your training at the Indigo Plateau where we will be staying and rooting for you. Get back to the house, we leave early tomorrow."

The girl turned back to head to the house, but stopped when her younger brother spoke. "Hey May, do you think Ash will be there? No one has seen him in years, but he still sends letters to his mother so we know he is alive and well."

May sighed, "Max, I hope he's there. Having not seen him or spoken to him in three years though, it's hard to say what he is doing and is planning for his future. Assuming he is still the same Ash we were friends with, I would bet on him being there because he would never pass up a chance to try and become the best in the world."

Max smiled, "I hope he's there too. He promised he would battle me someday and it would be awesome to battle him on the biggest stage."

"I'm sure you would enjoy that battle until he beat you in five minutes. You have been a trainer for not even two years while Ash has nearly eight years of experience and training, you're going to need some time before you can stand up to him."

Max glared at his sister before smirking, "If I didn't know better, I would say you have a crush on your old traveling buddy. I bet you wish you had accepted his offer to travel with him after he finished the Sinnoh league don't you?"

Now it was May's turn to do the glaring, "Shut up Max. At the time I was in a relationship with Drew and wanted to try and grow it so I didn't want Ash around. As for what you said about me having a crush, yeah right. Just because Ash is the greatest trainer I have ever met and one of the best friends I have ever had doesn't mean that I'm in love with him."

Max sighed, "Well good. He's too good for you anyways."

May glared at her brother even harder before turning around and storming her way back to her house. Once she got back, she went straight up to her room and thought about what Max had said. Was it possible that she did have a crush on Ash? If so, she hoped even more that he would show up again.

-On a boat heading towards Kanto-

A purple-haired boy was standing at the railing looking out over the ocean. He thought about all that had transpired during his adventures as a pokemon trainer. Initially he had treated his pokemon as nothing more than tools, but after his loss in the Sinnoh league to Ash, he had started treating his pokemon as friends. It had been a strange change to make, but in the end he believed it had indeed made his pokemon stronger and him happier.

As he pondered his thoughts, a slender pair of arms wrapped around the boys midsection. He felt a soft head press up against him and he sighed in contentedness. From the female who was currently hugging him from behind came a question. "Paul, what are you thinking about? You seem awfully deep in thought about something."

The boy known as Paul let out a small smile, hoping that no one would see it. It went against the hard front he put out in public after all. On the other hand, for some reason, this beautiful girl could get him to crack when no one else could. She made him happy and forgave his earlier mistakes. She helped him towards the future. Against his will he let out another small smile.

Paul turned his head so that he could see the blue-haired coordinator and his girlfriend while he contemplated on whether he should answer her question. After several moments, he decided to voice his question, "Dawn, you travelled with Ash for a year so you know him pretty well. A lot better than I know him anyway. Do you think he will show up at this tournament?"

The girl known as Dawn smiled up Paul and thought for a few seconds before answering. "You really want to show him how much stronger you have gotten, don't you? You want to show him how much you care for your pokemon now and you want to take him down. He's your biggest rival and you haven't even seen him for three years." Dawn giggled at the thought and Paul just looked at her.

"That didn't answer my question. You knew him a lot better than I did. Will he be at the tournament?"

Dawn sighed, "I hope so. He was a great friend and helped me a lot with the beginning of my journey. As for an answer to your question, I would guess he would be there. If he is still the same Ash he was back when I travelled with him, he would never pass up this chance to prove to the world that he's the greatest pokemon master ever."

Paul looked down at dawn, "Do you think he's a better trainer than me?"

Dawn giggled, "Well, the last time you guys fought he won, so I'm going to have yes until proven otherwise." Paul glared at her but she just went up and pecked him on the lips before running off back to her room. As she left, she looked over her shoulder at the boy and said, "Don't worry, I'm sure you could take him now. You have gotten a lot stronger after all."

Paul sighed and went back to look at the ocean again, contemplating his thoughts and hoping for a chance to get a rematch with his greatest rival and the man who set his life back on track.

-Cerulean City Gym-

Standing in front of the gym we see three people. One of them is an orange-haired girl with a yellow shirt and blue shorts on. She is standing hand-in-hand with a young man who appears to be around the same age with spiky brown hair, a black shirt, and purple pants on. Facing the young couple is a tan man with incredibly squinty eyes. He appears to be older than other two by a few years. He is wearing a greenish shirt with a brown and orange vest over it as well as brown cargo pants.

The man with the spiked brown hair turned to his girlfriend, "So Misty, are you ready for the tournament? You can show off the connection you have with your water pokemon as well as how powerful of a gym leader you really are."

The girl turned to face her boyfriend and gave him a peck on the cheek, "Thanks Gary. And yes, I'm ready for this. I might not be the most powerful trainer in the world, but most certainly am one of the best. When this tournament is over, the whole world will have respect for me, the greatest water type trainer in the world."

The man facing them sighed, "Misty, you are acting just like Ash. It's good that you're confident in yourself, but don't get too confident and let your guard down. That is an easy way to an early exit."

Misty's face went red with anger, "BROCK! I am NOT like Ash. He was-"

Before she could go on about how she wasn't Ash, Gary covered her mouth and Brock apologized. "Sorry Misty, I know you don't like being compared to him, but it wasn't a bad thing. Confidence is good."

Misty sighed, "I suppose that's true, but still, don't do it again. Also, speaking of our old friend Ash, do you think he's going to show up at the tournament?"

That question stopped the conversation. After a little bit, Gary got a huge smile on his face. "You know what? That actually sounds like something Ash would do. Disappear for years; alone on his personal adventure and then suddenly pop up out of nowhere in the biggest tournament ever held. With his competitive spirit, there is no way he would miss this event."

Brock grinned as well, "You got that right Gary. Ash wouldn't miss this for the world. Assuming he hasn't changed too much while out on his own, I'm positive he will be there. Now, Gary, you said you had a few flying pokemon that could take is to the tournament, right?"

"Yes I did say that." With that, Gary tossed out three pokeballs. As the light materialized into pokemon, the three looked on at the Pidgeot, Aerodactyl, and Tropius that stood before them. Gary then looked at his two companions, "The Aerodactyl is my ride, you two each take one of the others and follow me."

With that, Misty hopped onto the Tropius while Brock took the Pidgeot. Together, the trio headed off towards Indigo Plateau looking forward to the battles to come as well as holding onto the hope of possibly seeing an old friend for the first time in three years.

-Mount Silver-

The man known as Ash Ketchum stood before his six battlers with Pikachu on his shoulder. The man held onto the hope that Pikachu would be able to battle again soon, but for now, his six other pokemon would just have to do the job themselves. He also knew that they were more than capable of doing what was necessary for the battles to win it all. He smiled at his team of six before recalling five of them back into their balls.

He turned to the Houndoom that was standing beside him, "Well, we're off to Indigo Plateau. With this tournament, I will claim the title of Pokémon master while all of my faithful friends will be known as the strongest of their kind to have ever been born. Now, Houndoom, the plan is to only use you until you fall in battle. The longer I can keep my party a secret, the larger our advantage will be. It will also help to intimidate our opponents if you build up a reputation of being unbeatable. Before we go though, you need to promise me that you will stay out of fights and not cause trouble."

The Houndoom looked at its trainer and barked a few times. Ash sighed, "I know you are only trying to protect me, my pride, my honor, and your pokemon friends, but if you pick a fight with everyone that looks at one of us funny or says something you don't like, we will get kicked out before we even battle. We have to step up and be the better people and pokemon. Ignore the jabs and show them how powerful we are on the battlefield. Once they catch sight of our power, there will be nothing to worry about. Okay?"

The large black dog gave a bark of approval before walking out of the cave at his trainers side.

**Well, that's the chapter. Hope you liked it.**

**Dunno when I will update next, but since I have a lot of ideas that need get written down, I will probably update rather soon. **

**Questions, comments, suggestions, let me know in a review or PM. I will do my best to listen to you guys and give you what you want. **

**Also, I don't know if it showed or not, but I'm not sure which pairing I want to use for Ash. I have narrowed it down to May or Anabel, but haven't yet come to a definitive decision yet. **

_**Well, that is the first chapter after an additional round of editing. I didn't change much here, but the rest of the chapters may have some changes made to them.**_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**For those who are wondering why I'm doing this, the reason is simple. After the success that this story was met with, I felt a little bad. I had rushed to get this story out and updated as fast as possible and only did one round of edits on each chapter. With as many fans as this story got, I felt bad about the quality that I had published and decided I owed it to all of you to go through and do some more serious editing. Hopefully you guys appreciate this.**_

_**Well, this is the second chapter with my edits. Hopefully this makes the story a little better.**_

**Chapter 2**

**Before you read this story, let me tell you something unrelated to this story. I have a poll up on my profile so that you guys can help decide the pairing for any future story I may write. If you have a preference, make yourself heard and vote. Now, back to this story.**

**Well, hopefully you enjoyed the first chapter. Hopefully, this chapter manages to build upon what I started earlier and expand it into a bigger and better story. I have a few surprises in store for you for this story, so look forward to it and yeah. That kind of good stuff.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. **

-Indigo Plateau-

A man is seen walking into a Pokémon Center with a Houndoom at his side and a Pikachu on his shoulder. When he enters the building, everyone temporarily stops what they are doing to look at the man and his Pokémon. The man and his Pikachu ignore the looks they are being given, however the Houndoom is not so friendly. He proceeds to glare at everyone and even gives off a faint growl.

The people in the center watch the Pokémon in fear but the man simply places his hand on the dogs head and rubs it affectionately. "Calm down Houndoom. None of these people are here to threaten us. Just relax. If you can't behave yourself I will put you back in your ball."

The threat made the dog instantly stop growling. He refocused his eyes in front of him and walked along side his trainer to the front desk. As they walked up, the people slowly went back to doing what they had been doing before the man walked in. A select few of them opted instead to follow the man and catch his name so they could look him up and learn of his accomplishments. These were the trainers who were the most intimidated by the man or the ones who had the most hunger for knowledge of the enemy.

Once the man got to the front desk he spoke to those who had followed him. Without turning around he said, "If you are hoping for information on me, you won't get much. All you will find is that I qualified for this tournament and that I have a Houndoom and a Pikachu. What you won't find is that I do not battle with my Pikachu due to an accident a few years back. Now, kindly leave me in peace so that I may get checked in."

As the people left as fast as they could, the nurse Joy at the counter looked at the man and his Pokémon. She immediately spotted the problem with Pikachu and frowned. "Hello sir, I understand you are here for the tournament, may I have your Pokedex so that I can verify you are registered?"

The man smiled at the nurse. In a quiet tone that no one except for the nurse could hear he said, "I am the newest Frontier Brain. Scott registered me. He also told me he left special instructions for my registration that would prevent me from having to hand over my Pokedex. My name is Five."

The nurse frowned before going through her papers to see if what the man said was true. When she got to the Frontier Brain papers, she saw that the man hadn't been lying. The paper said the man travelled with a Houndoom and a scarred Pikachu. He was to be entered in without turning in his Pokedex in order to keep his true identity a mystery.

The nurse looked up at the man, "It's a pleasure to have you here, Five. I take it from your tone of voice you don't want me revealing anything about your rank and position?" The man nodded his head and the nurse smiled, "No worries, I will keep all of that a secret from everyone else here."

Before the nurse could continue, the man had one thing to say, "Don't tell the other brains about me either. Only one of them knows who I am and the boss wants the rest of them to be kept in the dark until the end of the tournament."

The nurse nodded her head, "Okay, I will make sure to not let them know. Before I give you your room key, may I ask what happened to your Pikachu? He looks incredibly powerful, but that wound on his stomach is keeping him from fighting. Why?"

The man sighed, "There was an unfortunate accident involving a knife. Pikachu has almost completely healed physically, but not enough to regain his speed. Without his speed he cannot dodge the attacks he needs to dodge in order to battle effectively. Since he doesn't have high defenses like some Pokémon, the lack of dodging makes battling with him too dangerous for my liking."

Nurse Joy frowned at this information, "Hmm, if it has been several years, then Pikachu should be able to regain the speed he lost, he just needs the right doctor. If you could find a personal doctor to work with you and Pikachu you could probably have him battling again in a few weeks time. I would like to help but I am responsible for running the healing of Pokémon for this tournament."

The man sighed, "It's okay Nurse Joy. It would be nice to battle with Pikachu during this tournament but I understand your dilemma. Hopefully after this tournament you can help Pikachu get back to fighting condition again."

After a few seconds, the nurse brightened up considerably, "WAIT!" She exclaimed. "I head a rumor that one of the most famous Pokémon doctors is going to be here at the tournament with some friends. His name is Brock and if you find him, maybe you can get him to help you with your Pikachu."

Ash smiled at the thought of his old friend and the fame he seemed to have in the Pokémon doctor community. "I will do just that Nurse Joy, thank you for the suggestion. Now, can I get a room to stay in for the tournament?"

Nurse Joy blushed, "Oops, I completely forgot about that, sorry Five." She then reached under the desk and brought out a room key. "Here you go, room number 225. You'll be on the second floor. Enjoy your stay and good luck in the tournament, I'll be rooting for you."

Ash smiled at the nurse before heading off to go relax in his room. Once he got to his room and locked the door, he released all of his Pokémon to relax with him. None of them were fond of being in Pokeballs for long periods of time, but none of them hated them as much as Houndoom and Pikachu did.

As he sat down on his bed, he smiled at his best friends for the past three years, or in Porygon-Z's case, one year. Houndoom lay down at his feet while Lucario sat in a chair a little ways off to the side. Staraptor made himself comfortable over by the window to the outside. Empoleon went and sat down against the wall next to Lucario while Jolteon jumped onto the bed and curled up next to Ash and Pikachu.

Ash looked at his Pokémon and spoke, "Well guys, we are finally here. We have about a week until the preliminaries start, so for now we will train in the surrounding areas while avoiding revealing you to anybody. Before any of you go out though, there are a few things I need to let you know. There will be many different trainers here, some of who may be psychic. That means some of them may be able to communicate with you telepathically. If that happens, you must address me as Five, not Ash. Until the end of this tournament, or at least for the beginning of it, I will not be going by Ash because I do not want to be recognized. Is that clear?"

All of the Pokémon spoke up in agreement with him so he continued, "Now for the part that most of you won't like. For the initial set of battles at least, Houndoom will be the only Pokémon I use."

Immediately protests were made and the other Pokémon complained. After a while, Ash finally calmed them all down. "Now, there is a simple reason as to why that is: I don't want my opponents to know what to expect from me and my Pokémon until absolutely necessary. This will give us an advantage in battle in the later stages as not all of my Pokémon will be known so my opponents will have to be prepared for anything, not specific Pokémon. Do you guys understand?"

The Pokémon all grumbled their agreement, not happy about having to wait for a while in order to battle while Houndoom got all the fun. Ash sighed, at least they had accepted his idea without attacking him for it.

With the decision about who was going to battle in the beginning out of the way, Ash had to think about what his plans were now that he was registered and checked in. It was nice being in a hotel again after spending so much time in the outdoors. He liked the outdoors a lot, but having true climate control and safety from the elements was a nice little change of pace for him. He decided that for the time being, he would stick to his room but starting the next day he would get back to his training. Having a day off would be good for both him and his Pokémon.

-Back in the lobby of the Pokémon Center-

A group of eight people had just walked through the doors. Seven of them were formidable battlers, highly gifted individuals with strong Pokémon and a love of battling. The eighth was a rather round man named Scott. The group walked up the Nurse Joy who was currently running the place in order to check in to the tournament.

The nurse looked at the group and smiled, "Hello, welcome to the Pokémon Center. I take it you wish to check-in now?"

After the Battle Brains had checked in and gotten their rooms, Scott asked the nurse a question, "Nurse Joy, it is wonderful being here for such a prestigious competition. By any chance, has my newest Battle Brain checked in yet?"

That question got the seven brains currently in the lobby to look around and listen for the answer. Nurse Joy smiled at Scott, "Yes he is. He registered about an hour ago. He seems to be a wonderful young man with a deep love for his Pokémon. From what I could tell, even though I'm no expert on the matter, his Pokémon appeared to be quite powerful as well. I'm sure he's going to make a few headlines at this tournament."

Scott grinned back at the nurse, "Oh, he is a wonderful guy. His love of Pokémon is at a level I have never seen before while his battle skills are at a level I haven't been able to truly see. I have only seen him battle once in the last several years and it was quite the impressive battle. I can't wait to see how he does here. Now, can you give me his room number? I have some things to discuss with him."

Looking around, the nurse could see that the other brains were eagerly looking for any information they could get on the man and Nurse Joy remembered her promise to keep his identity secret from everyone, especially the brains. She smiled at the brains before writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to Scott. "Here you go. He told me to keep as much information as possible about him a secret from everyone, so I trust you can figure out my clue's in order to find him."

The Battle Brains let out a small groan at the secrecy, but weren't overly surprised by it. At the same time, Scott gave out a small chuckle. "Thanks Nurse Joy and good luck with your job. With a tournament of this caliber, you are going to have quite a bit of work to do."

Scott then turned around and told the brains to get themselves comfortable in their rooms while he went to find his newest brain.

The seven brains proceeded to split up into smaller groups. Brandon went back outside to his Battle Pyramid because why stay in a measly hotel room when he could stay in his flying fortress? The rest of the brains went off to drop their stuff off in their rooms until only Anabel remained.

The nurse looked at the young girl questioningly, "Anabel, is there something I can do for you?" The nurse asked.

Anabel turned to the nurse and let out a sigh, "No, thanks though. I was just wondering about the competition and who all would be here for it. It's supposed to be the best trainers from around the world, but there is one in particular I am hoping to come across and battle. Anyway, I'm going to go check out my room."

Before she could turn to leave though, the nurse asked her a question, "Maybe I can help you, who is this trainer you are hoping to battle? I can scan the list of entrants and see if this trainer is on the list."

Anabel smiled, "Really? Thanks Nurse Joy. I was wondering if Ash Ketchum was going to be here."

The nurse gave a little smile towards Anabel, "Any reason in particular you're looking for that young man? If I recall right, he's about your age and quite accomplished as well."

Anabel blushed a little, "N- no reason. It's just that he's one of the trainers that have beaten me before and since I haven't heard anything about him the last few years, I was hoping to see if he is still the same guy he was when we battled. Anyways, can you tell me if he is on the list of entrants?"

The nurse smiled, "Of course that's all it is. And I guess I can understand your curiosity. He was an incredibly gifted and talented trainer with a love of Pokémon but he hasn't competed in any competition in nearly three years. I don't follow too many trainers, but many of my cousins and relatives had wonderful experiences with the boy and his friends, so we took an interest in his doings. I know that no one really knows what he has been up to the last few years, but I heard a rumor a couple years back that he was busy trying to destroy Team Rocket. Since no details were released about how they were destroyed, I can't help but wonder if Ash played a role in it.

"Anyways," the nurse continued, completely missing the surprised look on Anabel's face at that information, "you wanted to see if he was in this competition? Okay, wait just a sec for me to look through my list here."

As the nurse checked her list, Anabel was deep in thought. _Lucy thought that Scott was holding something back about the new brain and Scott told us that this new brain defeated Team Rocket alone. If Nurse Joy heard a rumor that Ash had been busy trying to defeat Team Rocket, is it possible that the new brain IS Ash? And even if it isn't, if Ash was working to destroy Team Rocket and this brain really did defeat Team Rocket, isn't it possible at the very least that this new brain knows something about Ash? I'm going to figure out who this new brain is and question him._

Anabel's thoughts were interrupted by the nurse clearing her throat. Anabel looked up and blushed, "Sorry, I got lost in thought about something, what were you saying?"

The nurse smiled at the young lady, "I was just saying that unfortunately there is no Ash Ketchum registered to this competition. On the other hand, with so many powerful trainers here, it stands to reason at least one of them must have seen him during the last few years and might know where he is right now. I hope you succeed in finding him and good luck during the tournament."

"Thanks Nurse Joy," Anabel said. "I hope I can find him as well. It's been too long since we last talked."

Anabel turned to walk to her room when a different voice interrupted her, "Hey Anabel, it's been a while, how are you doing?"

Anabel turned and saw a pair of familiar faces. She smiled at them, "Hey May. Hi Max. I'm doing pretty well, are you guys entering the tournament?"

The brunette coordinator smiled and shook her head, "I'm not entering, but my little brother is, so I'm here to support him."

Anabel turned to the boy, "Hey Max, how have you been? I take it that since you are in this tournament you started your journey and had some success in it so far?"

Max grinned, "Yup. It's been almost two years since I started. My first year I made the top 16 of the Hoenn Pokémon League competition and with this competition I'm going to show the world just how powerful my Pokémon are, as well as the bond I have with them."

Anabel smiled, "That is some determination you have there. It reminds me of your friend Ash's determination when he battled against the Battle Frontier."

"Well, I travelled with him for quite some time before I started my journey and I guess his attitude and beliefs rubbed off on me quite a bit. I don't think I would be the trainer I am today if it wasn't for him," Max said. "Speaking of Ash, I was wondering if you knew whether or not he had entered this competition? I really want to battle him."

Anabel couldn't help but let out a little laugh at the young trainers enthusiasm. "Max, calm down, I'm sure you will get to battle him someday. However, according to Nurse Joy, there is no Ash Ketchum sighed up in this tournament."

Max's face fell at the news, but before he could say anything, May spoke up, "I take it you were hoping to see him again as well since you asked the nurse whether he was here or not?"

"Well, he was always one of my favorite trainers once I saw his love and respect for all Pokémon, so I wanted to have a rematch with him to see if he had gotten any better or what he had been up to these last three years."

Before May could respond, Max spoke up, "Well, even without Ash here, I'm sure we will find him soon. He can't stay gone forever. Also I was wondering if I could challenge the Battle Frontier after this tournament."

Anabel smiled, "Well Max, you might be a little young, but I will talk to Scott about it. If you do well here, he will probably let you. Also, speaking of the Battle Frontier, Scott told me something about a month ago."

Max looked up, "What did he say?"

"Well, he held a meeting in Viridian City about a month ago and announced to all of the Battle Brains that an eighth battle Brain has been selected to join the Frontier."

A new voice spoke up from behind this small group, "A new Brain? Well that sounds exciting, who is it?"

The group turned and came face-to-face with two more people. One had purple hair while the other had long blue hair. Anabel didn't know them, but the others did. May spoke up, "Hey Dawn, how are you doing? And Paul, I take it you're entering this competition?"

The purple-haired boy, Paul, nodded his head, "Yes I am entering this competition. I'm going to beat everyone and claim my title as the greatest trainer. Now, what was this I heard about a new Frontier Brain? Scott gave me permission to challenge the Battle Frontier after this tournament, so I'd like to know all I can before I do that."

Anabel grinned at the trainer in front of her, "I take it you're a powerful trainer then. Scott only lets the best challenge us. I'm looking forward to the challenge. As for the new Brain, I don't know much. Scott wanted us to all be in the dark about it so we would suspect anyone and everyone as being the new brain. All I know is that the trainer is a male and supposedly a younger person. Beyond that I'm not really sure. Scott says the guy is powerful enough to probably claim the title of Final Brain of the Frontier, so there is that as well."

Paul seemed to enjoy hearing that there was going to be such a strong competitor at the tournament. He Looked at Anabel and asked one last question, "The only thing that would be better than winning this tournament against such opponents would be beating my old rival Ash. Do you know if he is here at the competition?"

"Wow, Ash seems to be quite the popular guy," Anabel stated. "Actually I asked Nurse Joy about that but she said that he wasn't registered for the competition. On the other hand, I have a hard time believing he would miss this opportunity to battle powerful opponents."

Paul sighed, "It's a shame he won't be around for me to beat, but I guess I'll just have to wait for him to show up again before beating him. Oh well. I'm off to go register, Dawn, you coming with me or do you want to hang out with some of your friends?"

Dawn contemplated the question, "I'll go with you, Paul. I can catch up with May and Max a little later."

As Dawn and Paul walked off to register, everyone's attention was suddenly drawn to a man walking down the stairs with a Pikachu on his shoulder and a Houndoom at his side. No one knew what it was exactly, but they all felt drawn to the man. It wasn't a threatening presence, but it was a powerful presence that nobody could ignore.

Two people in particular were fascinated by the man and his Pokémon and spoke up, "WOW! That is an impressive Houndoom, can I see it?" Questioned the young trainer named Max.

Meanwhile, a voice came from a man who had just entered the Pokémon Center, "That is an incredible looking Houndoom, do you mind if I examine him?"

The man sighed and placed a hand on the Houndooms head. "Calm down Houndoom, they aren't here to threaten us. Relax and come on."

The man then turned to the trainer named Max. The man smiled at him, "You look like a young trainer, if you want to look at my Houndoom, feel free, but be warned, if you do something my Houndoom doesn't like, he can be rather snappy with his jaws."

The warning intimidated Max a little, but it didn't diminish his excitement. The man then turned to the other voice that had spoken. He saw it came from another of his old friends, or more precisely, his old rival. "Hello, you seem to be a Pokémon trainer of sorts as well, but I don't get the same battle vibe from you. I will tell you the same thing I told the young trainer, this Houndoom is incredibly protective of me and my Pokémon, you can examine him, but be careful."

Before either of the two people who had been addressed could respond, Houndoom began growling and barking. The man sighed, "Houndoom, hush. I don't want to put you in your ball, but if you're just going to cause trouble I will have no choice."

The Houndoom barked a few more times and the man grinned. He looked around and saw a young purple-haired trainer looking at Houndoom in confusion. "You must be the Salon Maiden Anabel, am I correct?"

The young lady looked at the man before responding, "Yes I am. Your Houndoom doesn't seem to like me very much based on what he was just telling me."

The man sighed, "Houndoom, be nice to her. From what I have heard, she is a nice young lady who cares deeply for Pokémon; she is no threat. I know you don't like people other than me reading your thoughts, and feelings, but I'm sure Anabel meant no harm from it."

He then turned back to Anabel, "It's not that Houndoom doesn't like you, it's that he isn't the most social Pokémon in the world. He isn't fond of most people and insists on trying to protect me from people whenever I'm out in public. I'm sure that if you got to know Houndoom, he would like you more."

By this point, Ash was really nervous. He could see pretty much all of his old friends were gathered in the Pokémon center. Dawn was over with Paul registering while May and Max were with Anabel watching him quite closely. Meanwhile at the entrance of the center stood his old rival Gary hand-in-hand with Misty while Brock stood nearby. Ash mainly hoped that the people would be so focused on the Houndoom they wouldn't pay much attention to the Pikachu on his shoulder.

After a few seconds Max spoke up, "Hey, do you want to have a practice battle? I would love to see how powerful your Houndoom is."

Ash sighed, he did want to battle. The thought of a battle was getting him really excited, but battling his old friend could lead to them figuring out who he really was. At the same time, he had once promised to battle the boy. "Not today. I'm relaxing today, but maybe tomorrow we can have a little one-on-one battle. For now though, I was heading out to take a walk around. I suppose I will see you guys later."

With that, he walked out of the Pokémon center before anyone could say anything else to him. As soon as they were a safe distance away, Ash let out a deep breathe and sighed, he hoped it wouldn't be too hard to keep his identity a secret. He had expected Paul to be here, and maybe Misty as well, but the rest of them all surprised him. He couldn't believe that Max was already a good enough trainer to make it into this competition. He figured Misty was here because she was a gym leader and wanted to prove her superiority as a water trainer. When he saw her holding hands with Gary he had wanted to laugh, but that could have blown his cover so he held it in. He figured Brock, May, Dawn, and Gary were all there to support their friends and he sighed, remembering the days when he was one of the trainers they would have supported.

Another thing that had surprised him was that May was there with only Max. No Drew. He had thought the two were a couple still, they certainly had been before his current journey, otherwise he would have travelled with May. Seeing her at the competition and apparently single made Ash happy for some reason. Also seeing Anabel again for the first time in four years was a shock. He wasn't surprised she was here, but he was surprised at how she had grown. She was just as beautiful as May and he had a similar feeling for her as he did for May.

He sighed, of all the times to be affected by small crushes, why now? And why did it have to be two people instead of just one of them? This was just going to make everything more complicated.

He was broken out of his thoughts by the laughter coming from in front of him. He looked up and saw Scott grinning at him, "You, my boy, look like you are deep in thought about something. Is there anything I can do to help straighten out your thoughts?"

Ash shook his head, "No, it's nothing. I was just surprised to run into so many of my old friends in the Pokémon Center on my way to meet with you. It's strange seeing how much they have grown in three years. Especially Max. The fact that he is now a trainer, and not just any trainer but one strong enough to be allowed into this tournament is surprising."

Scott grinned, "It is amazing seeing young trainers grow up. From your expression though, I can't help but wonder if the growth of some of your lady friends has you a little surprised as well. Maybe you even took a fancy to one of them." At Ash's blush the man laughed again. "Well, it's good to see you are finally figuring out a thing or two about love. Hopefully it all works out for you. Anyways, I have some paperwork for you to fill out in order to finalize your becoming a Frontier Brain."

Ash took the papers and placed them into his backpack, "Thanks Scott. I will get these finished as soon as possible and return them to you. Is there anything else you need me to do in the meantime?"

Scott looked at Ash and clapped him on the back, "Five, you just need to go out there and show the people in this competition what you're made of. Have some fun and enjoy your battles. Also, it wouldn't hurt if you made friends with the other Frontier Brains and your old friends as well. I know you don't want them to know who you are, but that's okay. Keep your identity a secret and befriend them as Five. Then once the tournament is over and you announce to the world who you really are, you can really surprise them."

Ash grinned, "Okay, thanks Scott. Now I'm leaving before anyone see's us here. I don't want anyone knowing about me being a Battle Brain and if I'm seen talking with you too much, people will get suspicious."

With that, Ash walked back to the Pokémon Center to get some more rest and think about what he was going to do about his old friends at the competition. As he entered the center, he saw Brock confessing his undying love for Nurse Joy and the nurse looking rather sheepish and surprised by this.

When the nurse saw Ash enter, she interrupted Brock's confession, "Hey, Five. Welcome back. This is Brock and he might be able to help you with your problem."

Ash sighed; part of him didn't want to get Brock's help because it would involve Brock probably figuring out who he really is. On the other hand, he cared too much for Pikachu to let a small thing like an identity problem interfere with the Pokémon's well being.

Brock, who had been surprised to have his confession of love interrupted without him being hurt, glanced between the nurse and Ash. He looked at Ash and spoke, "Your name is Five? Unusual name, but okay. What do you need my help with?"

The people who had been with Brock seemed surprised as well. Ash, or Five as they now knew him, didn't seem like the kind of man who would need another's help. Ash Sighed, "Yes my name is Five. As for what I need, that is a private matter. Do you mind going for a short walk with me while I explain?"

Brock nodded and turned to his friends, "You guys go and get setup in your rooms, I will be there in a little bit, first I want to see if I can help Five with whatever his problem is."

His friends nodded and walked off to their rooms while Brock walked over to Ash. Ash smiled at his old friend, "Brock, I need your help, but everything I tell you, you must swear not to tell another soul. Not even your travelling companions and friends."

As they walked out of the center, Brock pondered these words, "Why does it need to be kept a secret from them? And just what is it you need my help with?"

Ash sighed, "As you have probably guessed, my real name isn't Five. In order for you to help me, you will probably figure out who I really am and I can't have word of my identity spreading around until the end of this tournament."

Brock thought about this before nodding, "Okay I promise not to tell anyone any of what you tell me. This will all be kept confidential. Now, what is your problem?"

As an answer to his question, Pikachu jumped onto Brock's shoulder. Brock was surprised by this action, but once he got a good look at Pikachu he gasped, "What happened to you? That is quite the scar you have."

Pikachu nodded, "Pika pi, chu pikachu."

Brock looked at the yellow mouse questioningly, "What was that? I don't really understand the Pokemon language too well.

Ash chuckled, "Give it time Brock, I'm sure you will figure it out eventually. As for what he said, he said that it's a knife wound from Team Rocket."

Brock gasped again, "WHAT? That's terrible!" He exclaimed.

Ash nodded, "That's why I personally destroyed Team Rocket. They pushed me too far and so I shut them down."

By now, Brock was getting used to surprises, but hearing this man claim that he had destroyed Team Rocket was still rather shocking. After several minutes, Brock spoke up, "If you don't mind me asking, why was Team Rocket after you in the first place?"

Ash let out a small smile before grimacing. "Team Rocket has always been after my Pikachu. Since practically the day I got him Team Rocket has wanted him. For years they failed to take him, but that was because of the incompetent members they had been using to pursue me. A few years ago, they decided on a different method to get him and it almost worked. In the end it failed, but they still managed to scar him and do serious damage to him with a knife."

When he finished talking, he noticed that Brock was no longer at his side. He turned around and saw Brock just standing there staring at him. Ash grinned, his old friend had figured out who he was.

Meanwhile, Brock was still frozen. After a small shock from Pikachu, who was also smiling, Brock spoke up. "Ash?"

Ash nodded and continued smiling, "It's been a while Brock. It's good to see that you've become such a famous Pokémon doctor so I was hoping you could help with the final stages of Pikachu's recovery."

Brock shook himself out of his daze and embraced his old friend. Ash returned the hug and smiled. After a little bit, the hug ended and Brock was grinning a huge grin, "It's been too long, Ash. Everyone has been worried about you, I can't wait until they find out who you are."

Ash interrupted him, "Don't forget your promise. You won't tell them anything about who I am. I want to surprise them later."

Brock sighed, "Okay, I won't tell them since I did promise, but you have to promise me you will let them know who you are by the end of the tournament. They all miss you."

Ash nodded, "I promise I will tell them. Don't worry."

Brock grinned, "Okay. Now, tell me what you have been doing for the past three years. I'm quite curious. Once you have done that, we can get to finishing Pikachu's recovery."

Ash nodded his head, "Well, I don't really want to go into details, if I did, we would be here for a few days. However, I will elaborate on the things I believe you care about the most. Namely, why I left alone without telling anyone and where exactly I have been."

Brock nodded, "That's reasonable, I suppose, but eventually I'm going to want to know all the details of your adventures the past three years."

"Yeah, yeah," Ash said, "I know. Anyways, the first point about why I left alone is simply because I had no one to travel with. You see, after the Sinnoh league, I began feeling some strange feelings that I began to believe were feelings of love, or more likely a small crush."

"Wait," Brock interrupted, "You fell in love? For all the time I travelled with you, you never showed any sign of such emotion!"

Ash sighed, "I know. And for the most part of the journey it's true that I couldn't have cared less about love. I was friends with my Pokémon as well as my companions, but I never had any desire for more than that. After the Sinnoh league though, that began to change. I developed a small crush on Dawn."

Brock looked like he was about to interrupt, but Ash just held up a hand to silence him. "I know this is surprising for you, but please try not to interrupt me." Brock nodded his head and Ash continued. "Anyways, I didn't really know anything about relationships or crushes or love or any of that because I had never given it much thought. I asked Dawn if she wanted to continue travelling with me with the hope that I could begin to understand my feelings better and maybe have it grow into a relationship. The problem was, I was a little too late. Dawn informed me that she had just begun a relationship with her childhood friend Kenny and wanted to travel alone with him to try and grow their relationship.

"I told her that was fine with me, although it did hurt a little. I decided to try and move on. I thought back to previous friends and gave May a call to see if she would travel with me. She, however, had the same problem as Dawn. May had just started a relationship with the coordinator named Drew and wanted to be alone with him to build their relationship.

"I tried to think about who else I might want to travel with, but no one I could think of would be able to. You had just started medical school to be a Pokémon doctor, so I wasn't going to ask you. Misty was a gym leader so I wasn't going to pull her away from her job to travel the world with me. Max still wasn't old enough to be a trainer and was instead busy studying up for when he could become one so I didn't want to bother him. Eventually I ran out of idea's and decided I would just travel alone, at least until I came across someone who wanted to join up with me.

"Then came my next problem: I had no clue where I wanted to go. I had travelled through the regions and collected gym badges as well as having taken part in the Pokémon League tournaments in them. I didn't really want to go on a repeat run of something I had already done, but I did want to do something. I eventually decided that I would just wander. I would start my adventure with just Pikachu and myself like I normally did and then go wherever my feet took me.

"I knew that my mother would never approve of such a plan, especially with no one to watch over me. I love my mother and all, but sometimes she can be a little too overprotective of me. Anyways, I decided to drop off my Pokémon and set out without telling her ahead of time. I left a note and promised to stay in contact with her. With Pikachu on my shoulder, I set out to start a new journey."

It was silent for a few minutes before Brock spoke up, "Okay, so then why didn't you ever contact us? I know you sent letters to your mother every month, but you never bothered contacting anyone."

Ash smiled, "Well actually I did contact Professor Oak once. I had just got my sixth new Pokémon and so it was sent to the professor, but that left me with only five Pokémon capable of battle, so I talked with Professor Oak and begged him to allow me to have seven Pokémon with me at a time. He finally relented and sent me back the Pokémon I had just caught. I asked him to keep the contact a secret."

Brock nodded, "That still doesn't answer my question."

Ash sighed, "Fine. At first, I didn't want to distract anyone from their journeys and goals. Then I got so involved in my own journey that everything else kind of just slipped my mind. By the time I looked up, two years had passed. At that point, I wanted to get back in contact with everyone, but I was afraid of how they would react to seeing me after I had just disappeared on them for two years. I was afraid they would be mad at me. I decided to live in the mountains and wait for a chance to reenter the world again and that is why I am here. This tournament is serving as the official end of my current journey."

Brock sighed, "Ash, we were never mad at you, we just missed you. You should have contacted us, but since you didn't, I guess this should serve as a good way to reintroduce yourself to everyone. On a related note, this thing that you got distracted in for two years, I take it that was the Team Rocket thing you mentioned?"

Ash nodded, "Yeah. About a month into my journey a large group of grunts and a few higher ups attacked me. Things happened and Pikachu ended up getting knifed. This Houndoom of mine saved both of our lives by getting help from a nearby Pokémon Center. Anyways, after that I decided Team Rocket had wronged me for the last time, so I delved into training and plotting to destroy them. Two years later, I accomplished just that by personally defeating Giovanni and turning him in to the police. It was around that time that I caught my most recent Pokémon and had my little conversation with Professor Oak."

Brock shook his head, "I still can't believe that you defeated Team Rocket. Regardless, I'm glad you did, with them out of the way the world has been a safer place. Now, can I take a look at Pikachu? Also, what exactly does he need to do to finish recovering? The wound looks like it is completely healed."

Ash sighed, "The wound was deep and although the wound healed, we were told it would be several years before Pikachu would be able to receive the final treatment and regain his lost mobility. The knife damaged several muscles and tendons thus limiting Pikachu's movements quite a bit. I could train Pikachu myself, but I don't want to hurt him any worse. I figured a skilled doctor like you would be able to help me out with the training to bring Pikachu back up to his old speed and then some."

Brock nodded, "Okay, I can help with that, but first I need to get some scans of Pikachu done, so lets go to the Pokémon Center and do them. I will look at them tonight and get back to you tomorrow to help you begin training your Pikachu again."

Ash nodded, "Thanks Brock, lets go."

-In a hotel room above the Pokémon Center-

Gathered together was a small group of people. There was Max and May as well as Anabel, Dawn, Gary, and Misty. The group was busy talking about how things had been since they had last seen each other. Anabel was feeling a little left out since she didn't know many of these people, but they had asked if she wanted to hang out with them and she had accepted. They were Ash's friends after all and she was hoping she could learn a little more about him and maybe get some clues as to where he had gone.

After talking for a while, the topic turned to the strange man with the Houndoom and Pikachu. Max spoke up, "He looks incredibly strong and I can't wait to have a battle with him tomorrow. Man, that Houndoom is impressive looking."

Gary nodded his agreement, "I have to agree with that. As a researcher, I have seen many Pokémon of every species, but that has to be one of the strongest if not the strongest Houndoom I have ever seen. It appeared to be in incredible shape."

Now it was May's turn to speak up, "It was beautiful. One of the most beautiful Pokémon I have ever seen. I don't know what the man feeds his Pokémon, but it seemed to work wonders for the Houndoom."

"I agree completely, and with the power it seemed to have as well, I'm glad it's a battling Pokémon and not a contest Pokémon. It would be an incredibly challenging Pokémon to defeat in a contest," Dawn gushed.

Next came a voice that hadn't spoken up too much, "Houndoom told me that he would always protect his trainer and fellow Pokémon. The bond between them is incredible. It has been years since I've seen a bond of such closeness between trainer and Pokémon."

The group looked over at Anabel. "What do you mean?" Misty asked. "Houndoom talked to you?"

Anabel nodded, "I suppose you don't know. I can feel Pokémon's emotions and communicate with them telepathically. When the man told his Houndoom to be nice to me, it was because I had tried to communicate with him mentally and the Houndoom didn't appreciate it. He said some not so nice things as well as telling me that he would always protect and serve his master."

Now Gary spoke up, "Does this man have a name? I heard Nurse joy call him something before he left with Brock, but I didn't really catch it."

When no one spoke up, Anabel answered, "I don't think it's his real name, but the Houndoom referred to the man as Five. I believe that's a codename of sorts, but it is also probably the closest to a name we will get until he chooses to reveal his identity."

"Speaking of Brock," Dawn said, "where is he? Five, or whatever his name is, said he had a problem he needed Brock's help with and Brock said he would be gone for a little bit to help him with it, but he's been gone for quite some time."

May then spoke up, "I don't know where he is, but I'm sure he's fine. If he needed Brock's help and Nurse Joy recommended him, it's probably a medical issue that she can't deal with due to the current busyness of the center. Anyways, speaking of missing people, where did Paul go?"

"He took one look at the Houndoom and decided he wanted to get some last minute training in," Dawn responded. "He is taking this tournament incredibly seriously. He really wants to show the world how he has changed since he lost to Ash as well as prove how powerful he is. He was hoping Ash would be here, but it seems he isn't."

Max sighed, "Ash might not be here, but I agree with Paul about the Houndoom. Seeing it makes me think I still have to train if I want to do well in this competition. That Houndoom looks incredibly powerful."

Suddenly Anabel spoke up, "Hey, did you guys see the Pikachu the man had on his shoulder?"

Everyone stopped for a few seconds and thought about it. After a few seconds they were all nodding and Misty spoke up, "Now that you mention it, I do remember that. It didn't draw attention to itself the way the Houndoom did and we were all so distracted by the Houndoom we didn't pay the Pikachu much attention. Why?"

Anabel thought about it, "Well, the Pikachu said hello to me as if I was an old friend or something. He asked me how Espeon was doing. I was wondering how he knew about my Espeon. I have only met one trainer who travelled around with a Pikachu on his shoulder but I have met several trainers with Pikachu's. What really stood out to me about the Pikachu was the scar it had on its stomach. It looked like it had been stabbed or something."

"It has," spoke a voice from the doorway. Everyone turned to see Brock standing there. After everyone had greeted him, Anabel asked Brock to explain what he had said. "Well, I can't tell you much because Five asked me to keep it a secret, but many years ago his Pikachu was involved in an unfortunate accident involving a knife. The Pikachu lost most of its mobility and Five was wondering if I could help Pikachu recover fully so he could battle again. That is all I'm telling you though, everything else I am sworn to secrecy about. This man takes his battles seriously and wishes to hold as many advantages as he can. He also said he is looking forward to his practice battle against Max tomorrow as it has been a month since his last trainer battle. After that, he went back to his room, so yeah."

After several minutes of thinking and silence, May spoke up. "Well guys, regardless of this strange man named Five, we are finally here at the Indigo Plateau. I say we commemorate our arrival with a shopping trip!" She exclaimed.

All the guys groaned at the thought, but since all the girls liked the idea and the girls outnumbered the guys, the girls won and were soon dragging all the guys on a shopping spree.

-Forest outside of the Pokémon Center-

A young man with purple hair was walking through the forest after having just finished a training session with his Pokémon. As he was walking, he caught sight of another man, this one happened to be walking by with a Pikachu on his shoulder and a Houndoom at his side.

Paul called out to the man, "Hey, I saw you at the Pokémon Center earlier, mind if I have a word with you?"

Ash gave a sigh, he had simply wanted to go on a simple walk and had the bad luck to run into someone he knew and who wanted to talk to him. Since it was Paul, Ash was hoping that at the very least it wouldn't be a long conversation. "Sure, what can I do for you?"

Paul looked at him, "Well earlier I saw your Houndoom and noticed that it appears to be quite strong. I was wondering if there was any chance you would like to have a practice battle before the competition starts?"

Ash was about to inform Paul that he was relaxing that day and that maybe the next day they could battle, but then Houndoom spoke up and barked a few times. Ash sighed, "Well, I had been planning on relaxing today, but my Houndoom seems to want to battle you so I suppose I can tolerate one battle."

Paul nodded, "Good, this will give me a chance to test my strength and beat someone now before everything starts. Maybe I can even scare you away."

Ash laughed, "I see you are rather confident. You also seem to be even more arrogant than that new trainer Max who also challenged me to a practice battle. I'm battling him tomorrow, but Houndoom seems more excited to battle you, so this should be fun."

Paul smirked before taking his place at one end of a clearing. "Before we begin, I have one question for you: What happened to your Pikachu? That's quite the scar it has."

Ash sighed, "He got knifed by a criminal organization. I retaliated by destroying said organization. That's all there is to it, now lets battle. Houndoom, take the field and prepare for battle."

Houndoom calmly walked onto the field, knowing that no matter what he did this opponent couldn't be intimidated. He settled for focusing his mind and preparing for a battle. Houndoom could tell that this trainer was no pushover.

Paul grabbed a pokeball and tossed it, "Ursaring, lets go." With that, a massive brown bear with a yellow circle on its chest appeared. The bear gave a mighty roar that Houndoom just smirked at. The bear then changed its intimidation idea to simply glaring at the dog.

Ash spoke up, "As the challenger, I give you the first move."

Paul smirked, "You shouldn't have done that, now I'm going to end this battle before you can even get a strike in. Ursaring, use earthquake and follow it up with a full power hammer arm."

As Ursaring was about to launch the attacks, Ash took a second to think. It was a good strategy, the earthquake would do lots of damage and prevent Houndoom from moving very well allowing Ursaring to get in close and land a super effective hammer arm as well. If both attacks managed to work at full power, Houndoom would take serious damage and possibly be out before he could launch any attacks.

Ash quickly came up with a counter strategy to use. "Houndoom, use a full power flamethrower on the ground to keep Ursaring away. Once the earthquake ends, use dark pulse and iron tail."

As Ursaring slammed its feet into the ground creating a massive earthquake, Houndoom opened his mouth and blasted the ground with intense flames. Although the moving earth shook him around, he was able to keep the flames going and superheat the ground to immense temperatures. As Ursaring switched into his hammer arm charge, Houndoom began forming a ball of dark pulse in his mouth and waited for the massive bear to stop.

Paul watched in amazement as his opponents Houndoom superheated the ground. When he heard the counter strategy, he had smirked at the idea of it working, but after seeing the flamethrower at work, he had changed his mind. This truly was a formidable opponent. He watched as his Ursaring became unable to take the heat and jumped back. At the same time, Houndoom released its dark pulse, landing a direct hit while Ursaring was unable to dodge.

As Houndoom's tail began glowing white, Paul realized he needed to quickly come up with a counter of his own. "Ursaring, use focus blast to keep him away while you charge a focus punch."

Obediently, the bear launched a ball of focused energy at Houndoom, forcing him to jump out of the way and delay his strike. At the same time, the bear's fist began to glow white.

Ash saw this happening and already had a counter lined up. "Houndoom, keep it up and prepare to use _it_."

Houndoom agreed and began focusing his energy into his throat to build up a super powerful blast of fire.

Paul, who was unaware of what Houndoom was doing, sent his Ursaring to use focus punch on the hound.

Ash smirked, "Block it with iron tail and then use overheat."

Houndoom jumped and spun so that his tail would make contact with Ursaring's glowing fist. As the two made contact, they pushed back at each other. Paul called out, "Full power. Go full power and push that mutt back!"

Ash sighed, "Houndoom spin away and launch your overheat."

At the instant Ursaring increased his power, Houndoom backed off on his attack, spinning away. This caused Ursaring to overbalance and fall. Before he could pick himself back up, Houndoom unleashed a massive stream of intense flames. As the attack hit its mark, Ursaring called out in pain.

When the attack ended, Houndoom went back to stand by his master's side while Paul was left to look at his fainted Ursaring. Ash watched as Paul went over to his fallen Pokémon and thanked him for his work. Ash smiled at the sight and went to shake Paul's hand.

"Congratulations Paul, that Ursaring of yours is pretty strong. It's been a long time since Houndoom put that much effort into a battle. If he hadn't been going full out, you would have won."

Paul looked up with a triumphant look in his eyes, "Thanks, but I don't recall having introduced myself to you. How do you know my name?"

Ash groaned, he had gotten so caught up in everything he had forgotten that he wasn't supposed to know any of these people. Thinking quickly, he came up with something, "I saw you on TV. You are quite the gifted trainer."

Paul laughed, "You have a Pikachu on your shoulder and you know who I am. You are a powerful trainer who is obviously closely bonded with all of his Pokémon. Also, the way you battle, there is only one person who I have met that battles with that intensity. I don't know why you're hiding, but this should fun."

Ash laughed, "Of course you would figure out who I am. Well Paul, you have certainly improved. Anyways, until I tell other people who I am, I would appreciate it if you referred to me as Five."

Paul let out a mocking laugh, "That's your codename? That is lame. On a related note, you wouldn't happen to be the new Frontier Brain I've heard rumors about, would you?"

Ash smiled, "What do you think?"

Paul grinned, "Well, it's good seeing you again, but when we get to the tournament, I'm not going to hold anything back. Now that I know who you are, I can be prepared to beat you in our next battle. Anyways, I'm out, gotta get my Ursaring healed."

Before Paul had gone too far, Ash spoke up, "It's good to see you caring for your Pokémon. I'm glad you are treating them well now. Anyways, good luck in the tournament and hopefully we can battle each other in it. May the best trainer win."

Paul raised one hand and gave a short wave as he left the clearing to go back to the Pokémon Center. Ash then resumed his walk, preparing himself for the upcoming tournament.

**Chapter two completed.**

**Still haven't decided on a pairing for Ash. However, since everyone seems quite curious about it, I will let you know that I have the first four chapters typed up and am currently leaning towards pairing him with Anabel. **

**The next chapter will have the battle with Max and Ash. I think you all know who is going to win, but it should still be a good battle. Also in the next chapter I will throw some more romance type scenes in. **

**The plan is for the next chapter to go up until the tournament begins, but I'm not sure yet. It depends on how much happens between now and the beginning of the tournament. It could take one chapter to reach the tournament; it could take two or three chapters to reach that point. **

**Also, I don't know if I'm going to keep my chapters this long or not. I find it easier to type chapter's closer to 5000 words normally. On the other hand, writing longer chapters such as these is rather fun. The longer the chapter, the longer it will be between updates, but for now at least, I'm not going to worry about that. I will type what I type and publish it as I see fit.**

**For those who believe Ash is overly powerful, eh, whatever. As the story progresses you will see him not seem as incredibly powerful. The point that I am trying to make with his early battles is to show that he is at the same level as the league champions and the trainers who are truly competing for the title of strongest trainer.**

**If you have anything to say to me regarding this story, whether it is a suggestion, comment, complaint, criticism, or whatever, let me know in a review or PM. The more you communicate with me, the stronger my motivation will be to keep this story going with faster updates.**

_**Well, this chapter has also been edited now. Once again, not very much was changed, just a few grammatical/spelling errors. I actually like the first several chapters enough that I probably won't change anything dramatically yet. Who knows though. **_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Now for the next chapter with edits. Within this chapter or the next one I will probably start altering some events to make this story better. If I do, I will leave a note about it at the bottom.**_

**Chapter 3**

**Well you guys, here we are. Chapter three. This chapter will put me over 20,000 words. I might even hit 30,000 if the chapter ends up being long enough.**

**Anyways, here it is, enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

-Early morning in the forest-

With the sun barely above the horizon, a man is seen sitting near a lake he found in the forest. He walked several miles through the dense foliage until he heard the sound of flowing he water. He had then followed the small creek up to its source another mile or so away.

Now, the man was leaning back watching his Pokémon play around and have a good time. Many people would have a hard time believing that such powerful Pokémon could play around and goof off in such a lazy and haphazard manner. Especially the Houndoom. After how the doglike Pokémon had behaved the previous day, most believed him to be a brute and a hardass of a Pokémon. However, when alone in the forest with no one else around, the Pokémon let their shields down and just enjoyed their relaxation.

In the lake, Empoleon was playing with the water and Porygon-Z. The penguin would make different shapes with it and then the odd little normal type would freeze them with an ice beam. The two of them were enjoying themselves and having fun.

On the shore, Jolteon was chasing Houndoom around in a tag like game. Eventually, Jolteon managed to catch the larger dog and the two switched roles. With Houndoom chasing Jolteon, Jolteon had the advantage in speed, this was giving Houndoom a hard time so he resorted to launching weak attacks to try and get Jolteon. As they ran, you could hear something that sounded like laughter coming from the two Pokémon.

A little farther away at the forests edge two more Pokémon were having a discussion. Pikachu and Lucario were both just conversing with each other about recent events and what to do in the future. The two were the most levelheaded of the Pokémon, so when it came to calm discussions, those were the two that normally would take part.

Above everyone's head a Staraptor was flying around. He was a proud and fast bird and prided himself as being the fastest bird in the skies. He was busy playing with several younger wild bird Pokémon and occasionally racing a more experienced one who thought to defeat Staraptor's speed.

The young man was sitting and leaning back on his hands as he watched his Pokémon play. The sight brought immense happiness to the young man and a smile could be seen on his face. After having spent the previous day worrying about his old friends, the tournament and his future, it was incredibly relaxing to sit down in nature and relax.

As he was relaxing, the young man saw his Lucario tense. The Pokémon turned to look at him and informed him that he had sensed a presence nearby. The man sighed; he should have known he wouldn't be given much privacy even this far into the forest. The fates seemed to be intent upon forcing the man back into civilization.

The man didn't want to make his Pokémon return to their balls, but at the same time, he didn't want them to be seen by other competitors, he wanted them to remain secret until he decided otherwise. The young man then got an idea, "Hey, you guys, we're going to have some company so go for a little run and don't make yourselves visible to strangers. Houndoom and Pikachu can stay here since they are already known, but the rest of you should go get some exercise. Training will begin after breakfast."

With that, Jolteon, Lucario, and Empoleon took off into the forest for a jog. Porygon-Z followed behind them, but was floating along. Staraptor, who had heard the commotion, moved a ways off into the forest to not be seen while he played with the younger birds around him.

A few minutes after the Pokémon had left, the young man heard the sounds of the brush moving as someone walked into the small clearing and saw the lake. He heard a small gasp from behind him and decided to speak up, "It's a beautiful spot, isn't it?"

From behind him, he heard a female voice respond, "Hey, sorry, I didn't know you were here. Hopefully I didn't disturb you. And yes, this is a beautiful spot. How'd you find it?"

Based on the fact that Houndoom wasn't acting very threatening, Ash could only assume that the female behind him was someone he knew. He thought back to the voice and put a name and face to it. "Don't worry Anabel, you didn't disturb anything, you just got me to start my Pokémon's training a little earlier than planned. As to how I found this place, I was wandering through the forest and came upon it. How about you, how did you find it?"

Behind him, he could hear the footsteps moving closer to him before stopping a little off to his right side. "Well, I was walking through the forest, enjoying the early morning, when I heard some commotion. I decided to check it out and it led me to here. I take it your other Pokémon have been returned to their balls now?"

The young man chuckled, "Nope. They went out for an early morning run. Houndoom decided to stay since he knew someone was coming and Pikachu can't really run too well right now. Hopefully in the near future he can, but not now. How about you, do you have any Pokémon you want to let out? This is a great location for them to play around and have fun."

The young lady thought about it, "Well, maybe like you I want to keep my Pokémon a secret from my opponents."

"Hmm, I suppose I can understand that sentiment, but since you are a rather well-known and famous trainer, your Pokémon are pretty well known. If I recall my research correctly, you have an Alakazam, a Metagross, and an Espeon at least. As for the others, I'm not sure," the man said.

Anabel sighed, "It's hardly fair. You know three of my Pokémon while I only know one of your Battling Pokémon. Still, I can understand the strategy you are using. Keeping your opponents in the dark is a good idea. However, since you know three of my Pokémon, I guess I can release them to play around out here for a little while."

With that, three pokeballs were thrown and three Pokémon appeared in the clearing beside the lake. Almost immediately, the Espeon took an interest in Pikachu. Before Anabel could ask about that though, Pikachu led the purple feline away into the forest.

Anabel sat down beside Ash and asked him a question, "Do you know why our Pokémon ran off like that? Normally Espeon sticks around better and doesn't leave without asking me."

Ash smiled, "Since Espeon ran off with Pikachu, they won't go far. At least not very fast anyways. My guess is that Pikachu had a quick conversation with Espeon and wanted to tell her a secret or something. Since you can read the Pokémon's thoughts or emotions or whatever, they had to get outside of your range to do so. Don't worry though, my Pokémon are all very playful and won't do any harm."

Anabel seemed to accept that answer and sat down near Ash. After a few minutes of just watching nature, she turned to look at him, "I heard that your name is Five. Out of curiosity though, who are you really?"

For a few seconds, Ash said nothing. Once he had composed his thoughts though, he responded. "I am a boy. Or a man. I don't really know. I am 17 years old but have seen more in my short life than most people see throughout the duration of their entire life. I love Pokémon with every fiber of my being and my greatest joys all involve my accomplishments alongside my Pokémon. At one point in time I went by another name, the one I was born with, and in the future I may go by that name again. For now, however, I go by Five. How about you, Anabel, who are you really?"

Ash turned his head to look at the girl and saw her deep in thought. What he had said was all the truth, but he had left out almost all of the details. He could tell that Anabel was trying to process what he said and make sense of it all before answering his question.

After a few minutes she answered, "I am a Frontier Brain and a friend to all Pokémon. I love battling, but I also enjoy just being able to play with my Pokémon and enjoy life. For most of my career as a trainer, I have been a battle brain, so being in a tournament like this is quite a change of pace for me. As you know I can sense Pokémon's emotions, allowing me to communicate with them telepathically. That has helped a great deal as a trainer and as a friend to Pokémon everywhere."

Ash thought about her words for a little while before saying anything else. "I see. It sounds like you are a wonderful person. I can feel the bond you have with your Pokémon and it is wonderful. Also, even though you may not be used to tournaments like this, I'm sure you will do a terrific job. You don't have anything to worry about. Unless you have to battle me, that is."

He couldn't help but end with a little jab, but the complements from the young man made Anabel blush. Once she regained control of her emotions again she spoke, "Thank you Five. If it comes to a battle, then I will give it my all and hope to defeat you, but if I lose to you I won't be too disappointed. Anyone with any skills as a trainer can tell you have an incredible bond with your Pokémon as well." A few seconds later, she added on, "You know, no offense, but you are a lot nicer than you look."

"Oh? Is that so? I suppose that makes sense. I don't spend very much time around people, and my Pokémon haven't all had the best experiences with people. Due to this, I spend a lot of my time in public keeping Houndoom calm and trying to get back to the wilderness quickly. Once we are in nature, we let down many of our shields and relax. It's no fun to always be on guard."

Anabel looked at the man and then his Houndoom. She wondered what exactly the stories were that all of his Pokémon had. She wondered why they didn't like most people. Anabel opened her mind up and asked Houndoom a question, "What is your story? Why don't you like most people?"

Houndoom raised his head and looked at the young Salon Maiden before grunting and laying his head back down. _Ask my trainer. It is his story to tell and he would not appreciate it if I told it. Also, I'll let it slide this time, but I do not enjoy having people in my mind other than my master. You may be a decent person, but that doesn't mean I trust you completely yet._

Ash looked on in amusement as he watched Anabel convers with his Houndoom. He was mildly surprised he didn't bark at her or bite at her for entering his mind again after being warned not to the previous day. As it was, he let out a smile to see his Houndoom warming up to another human.

Eventually, Anabel looked up at Ash in question, "What do you find so amusing?" She asked.

Ash grinned even more, "I was just glad that Houndoom didn't attack you for entering his mind after you had already been warned to not do it anymore. It makes me happy to see him start warming up to another person besides myself."

Anabel looked thoughtful at that, "I see. You believe he's warming up to me? I suppose I can see it. He did tell me that I was decent. Anyways, he also told me if I wanted to know why he doesn't like most people I should ask you because it is your story to tell."

For a little while, Ash contemplated how much he should tell Anabel. Since she was a Frontier Brain, there was a decent chance that Scott had let it slip that he had destroyed Team Rocket himself. That meant that if he informed Anabel that he destroyed Team Rocket, she would know that he was the new Frontier Brain. Eventually, he spoke up, "Well, that is a long story. Maybe one of these days if I have the time I will tell you, but for now I would rather not get into it. It is not a happy story."

"I see," said Anabel. "Well, you travel a lot, right?" Ash nodded his head. Anabel smiled, "Well then you must have lots of exciting stories to tell. Do you mind sharing? If you do, I can tell you what it's like to be a Frontier Brain or I might even tell you about my life before I became a Brain. What do you say?"

Ash thought about it before answering, "I suppose I can do that. However, not right now. The day is getting started now and I have things to do. As you might know, I have a practice battle today against Max and I want to get some training done before that. I also need to go and get breakfast. This evening though I will probably come back here. This is a wonderful place so I will probably make this my own personal training grounds and relaxation spot. If you want to swap stories, come find me here this evening."

With that, Ash stood up and made to walk back into the forest. Before he could leave though, Anabel spoke up once more, "Hey, Five, you seem to be a strong trainer who travels a lot, have you ever come across another trainer named Ash Ketchum? I was hoping to have a battle with him at this tournament, but apparently he isn't here."

Ash cringed. He didn't want to lie, especially not to Anabel, but it was still too early for him to reveal himself. "Yes I have met the guy. It was a little over a year ago. That is a story for another time though. It is also his story to tell. Anyways, I'm off to go gather the rest of Pokémon and get breakfast. After that I'm going to train. If you see Max, tell him I will battle him after lunch on a practice field outside the Pokémon Center."

As he finished talking, Pikachu came back into the clearing, closely followed by Espeon. The two appeared to be rather happy and playful causing both of their trainers to smile. Ash picked Pikachu up, "Come one buddy, let's go gather the rest and get started on our training." With that, Ash disappeared into the forest.

When Espeon walked over to Anabel, she looked at her Pokémon with a grin, "Say, Espeon, did you have a good time with Pikachu? He's definitely a pretty little Pokémon."

A little bit of color rose on Espeon's cheeks causing her to glare at her trainer, _I had as much fun with Pikachu as you had with his trainer from the looks of things._

Now it was Anabel's turn to blush as she quickly recalled her Pokémon and walked back to the Pokémon Center.

-Pokémon Center Cafeteria-

With the sun up and time running out before the tournament, several young trainers were busy eating breakfast while surrounded by their friends. Talking was common and the mood was light. However, one trainer remained distant from the conversation and his food. Most of the people didn't really consider this a problem, as most of the people didn't know Paul well enough to see that something was clearly amiss.

Luckily, he had a girlfriend who did notice his strange behavior. Dawn turned to her boyfriend and asked him, "Paul, what's on your mind? Ever since last night you have been quieter than usual and staring off into space. What's up?"

The people who had been talking got quiet because not much bothered Paul, so if something did, it had to be important. After sighing, Paul spoke up, "It's nothing. I ran into Five yesterday in the forest and asked him for a battle. He didn't want to but his Houndoom did so he agreed to it. I'm just thinking about how it went."

With the mention of the mysterious Five, all the people were now incredibly curious. This time Max spoke up, "Can you tell me anything about his battle style or moves? I feel like he's incredibly powerful, so anything you can offer to help me out would be appreciated."

This time Paul laughed, "Kid, Five destroyed my Ursaring. Sure he was a little tired from the training we had just done, but his Houndoom is a piece of work. I'm off to go train so I can stand up to the guy during the tournament. See you guys later." With that, Paul walked away, leaving the table in a stunned silence.

Eventually, Max let out a sigh, "Great, I really don't stand a chance. If this guy destroyed Paul, who even Ash could barely beat, what chance do I have against this guy?"

May proceeded to smack Max on the back of the head, "Don't talk like that Max! You knew when you signed up for this tournament you weren't going to be the strongest trainer here. This is simply a place to test yourself to see how strong you and your Pokémon really are. After this tournament, you will have a better assessment of your weaknesses and things you need to improve on. Five doesn't seem like a bad guy, so I'm sure he won't harass you or anything. Think of this battle as a learning opportunity. Also, if you keep that negative attitude, you will never win."

"May is right, Max," said Brock. "Also, from what I learned about Five, he is actually a pretty good guy. Even if he's going to win, he will probably still try to teach you at the same time. Don't worry about it and do your best. That's how Ash always improved and moved forward."

Max smiled, "Thanks guys. I will do my best and learn as much as I can. Now, who wants to help me train before my battle with Five?"

Everyone offered to help train with Max. The other competitors would be able to train themselves at the same time while the others just offered to help out of their own goodness. After that, everyone resumed eating. As they ate, another person came over to sit with them. The group all looked up in surprise to see Anabel.

"Well, good morning Anabel, where have you been all morning?" Brock asked.

Anabel smiled, "I woke up early and went for a walk in the forest. While I was out there I ran into Five and talked with him for a little bit. He's actually a really nice guy if you talk to him. Out in the forest with his shields down, you completely forgot about the intimidating way he carries himself around other people."

Once again everyone stopped eating to focus on anything they could learn about the man known as Five. Brock smiled at hearing how Ash is still the same nice guy if you can get him to talk. Once again, Max spoke up, "Can you tell me anything about his Pokémon or battle style? I'm a little nervous for my battle with him. Especially since he beat Paul yesterday."

Now it was Anabel's turn to be surprised, "He beat Paul? He must be a strong trainer. Since Paul has been given permission to take on the Battle Frontier, I can assume he is a rather formidable trainer. As for what I can tell you about him, I can't really. I didn't talk to him much about his Pokémon or strategies since he wants to keep that stuff secret as long as possible in order to hold an advantage. I do think his Houndoom is starting to warm up to me though. Also, I think my Espeon has a crush on his Pikachu. Other than that, I can't really say much."

Max sighed, "Oh well. I guess I will just have to do my best in this battle without having a lot of information."

"Wait, you said he didn't talk about his Pokémon and battling strategies, that means that you must have talked more along the lines of who he is," Gary said, "can you tell us anything about him as a person?"

"Well, I guess I can. He didn't tell me much about what he has done in his life, but he hinted that he had done a lot. He says he's 17 years old. He really enjoys being outdoors and seeing his Pokémon be happy. He is quite competitive and has strong bonds with his Pokémon. I didn't learn too much else though. Hopefully that helps."

Misty looked surprised, "He's really that young? That's incredible. With the power his Houndoom seemed to emanate as well as the way he carried himself, I figured he was at least in his 20's."

Dawn spoke up next, "Hey Anabel, do you think that Five might be the new Frontier Brain that Scott was telling you about? You said the guy was supposedly young and powerful and Five certainly meets both of those conditions."

Brock got a strange look in his eye at that idea, "You know Dawn, that actually makes sense. From what I know about Five, I wouldn't be that surprised if it was him. Speaking of him, Anabel, do you know where I can find him? I need to talk to him about his Pikachu."

Anabel nodded, "Yeah, I know where you can find him. After breakfast I will take you there. However, I will only take you because he value's his privacy. Oh, and Max, he told me to tell you that after lunch you should meet him on one of the practice fields outside the Pokémon Center."

Max and Brock both nodded their understanding and breakfast was resumed. Once breakfast was finished, the group split up to go about their tasks. Dawn went off to find Paul while Brock went with Anabel to find Five. The rest of the group stayed at the training grounds to train with Max and Misty for the tournament.

Anabel led Brock to the creek and told him to follow it upstream until he found a lake. After that, she headed back through the forest to go and do some training on her own.

Brock followed the creek, and just as Anabel had said, it ended at a lake. Brock looked around and could see several Pokémon training. They appeared to have paired up and were having battles with each other. He looked around until he saw Ash walking towards him.

"Hey Brock, you here about Pikachu?" Ash asked.

Brock nodded, "Yeah. I came alone; don't worry. Also, I must say, these are some incredible Pokémon you have raised here. Your other Pokémon are going to be jealous of them."

Ash sighed, "I know, but in the future, I will be able to train all of my Pokémon together so they will all be this strong or stronger."

"Yeah, about that, I heard a rumor about a new Frontier Brain. That wouldn't happen to be you, would it?"

Ash grinned, "Well maybe it is me. Scott explained to me about what I would have to do and how much I would be still be able to travel and do what I wanted to. It sounded like a pretty good deal to me so I took him up on the offer. Actually, if I hadn't bumped into Scott and Lucy, I wouldn't even be here right now. They're the ones that told me about this tournament and by agreeing to be a Frontier Brain, I was able to get registered as Five instead of as Ash."

"Well Ash, I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. You might still have your freedom to travel and do stuff, but it is still a lot of responsibility to be a Frontier Brain. I wish you the best of luck with that pursuit," Brock said. "Now, let us discuss your Pikachu and how to train him back into battling condition."

With that, Brock, Ash, and Pikachu stepped aside to work on Pikachu's recovery and training.

-Practice Fields outside the Pokémon Center-

On a battlefield stood two tired Pokémon. On one side was a Kirlia. Facing the Kirlia was a Starmie. Both of the Pokémon had weathered many attacks from their opponent and both were struggling to remain conscious. As the Pokémon glared at each other, they could hear their respective trainers encouraging them and urging them to fight on.

With one last burst of strength, Kirlia launched a barrage of leaves that zeroed in on the Starmie and seemed to follow it as it tried to dodge. After the leaves had made contact, the Starmie was exhausted of its energy and passed out on the field.

At the same time, a bright white light surrounded the Kirlia, encasing the Pokémon and transforming it. For several seconds, the two participating trainers as well as the several spectating ones watched in awe as Kirlia evolved. When the light died down, in place of the Kirlia was a beautiful Gardevoir.

Max ran to his newly evolved Pokémon and congratulated it on evolving and winning its match against Misty's Starmie. It had been a close battle, but being able to use thunderbolt and shadow ball had given the Pokémon an advantage over the Starmie. After the battle, it reaped the rewards of its hard work and finally evolved.

On the other side of the field, Misty recalled her Starmie and thanked it for its hard work in the battle. She was upset about the loss, but was glad to see Max's Pokémon evolve and grow stronger. She also knew that if she had been battling on a water field she would have been the victor. At least, that's what she told herself.

Soon, Gary walked up to Misty and gave her a hug. "That was a great battle," he said. "It could have gone either way, but Kirlia found the energy to use one last magical leaf attack before you could launch one final attack. I'm sure that next time you will win though."

Misty smiled at her boyfriend, "Thanks Gary. Do you know how long Brock's going to be gone for? With him around to take care of our Pokémon, they recover a lot faster during training."

Gary thought about it before answering. "It's hard to say how long he will be gone. If Pikachu's wound is as bad as it sounded, the special training to help it completely heal could take a lot of time and effort. It will also require a skilled doctor for most of the training as well. My guess is that Brock will be helping Five until after lunch when Five battle's Max. After that, Brock will probably work with us for a while."

"Okay, that makes sense," Misty responded. She then turned to face Max, "Hey Max, do you want to have another battle or do you want to let your Pokémon rest up for your battle against Five?"

Max thought about it for a few minutes before answering, "No thanks Misty. Maybe we can battle some more later, but for now I'm going to let my Pokémon rest while I come up with some strategies to try on Five."

Around noon, people began joining back up with the main group. First, Anabel came out of the woods from her training and rejoined the group. After her, Brock came out of the woods as well. From the other side of the Pokémon Center, Dawn appeared with Paul. Dawn looked immensely happy with herself while Paul seemed to not be in quite as bad a mood as usual. The group waited a little bit longer, but with no sign of Five, they decided to eat their lunch without him.

During lunch, the group caught up with each other about how training had gone during the morning. The biggest news was Max's Kirlia evolving, and for some reason, Paul congratulated him on that. That got him some strange looks since Paul is never that nice. This led May to ask a question, "Paul, what did you and Dawn do before rejoining us? You seem unnaturally happy while Dawn seems to be ecstatic about something."

This question caused the normally stone-faced Paul to blush and Dawn to giggle. This reaction caused many of the people at the table to erupt into laughter. After Paul finished glaring at everyone, he changed the subject before anyone could ask any more questions about him and Dawn. "So, Max, you ready to lose to Five after lunch?"

Seeing that Paul was back to his usual self, the group seemed to relax a little while also glaring at Paul for the way he worded his question. Max took a breath before answering, "I'm as ready as I can be to battle him. I might not have much of a chance of winning, but I will still try my hardest. Who knows, I might get lucky and pull off the upset."

Paul snorted, "Kid, luck will only take you so far. If I got lucky, I might be able to beat him. If you got lucky, you might be able to put up a fight before losing. Regardless, have fun in the battle."

Dawn whacked him in the head, "Paul, be nice or we won't continue what we were doing before lunch later." That got Paul to shut up and the table to laugh again. Paul glared at everyone before storming off.

After he was gone, May turned to Dawn, "So, what were you two doing before lunch?"

Dawn giggled, "Nothing. Nothing at all. Let's just say that deep down, Paul is a hopeless romantic. That's all you need to know."

Dawn then turned to Brock; "Paul told me that Five's Pikachu looked to be an incredibly strong Pokémon if he was capable of fighting. Do you have anything you can tell us about Pikachu's recovery?"

Brock sighed, "Five wants to be able to use Pikachu in battle by the end of the tournament. If he makes it to the very end of the tournament, Pikachu might be battle ready by then, it's hard to say though. It's quite the injury. Five doesn't want to push his Pokémon too much and possibly hurt him worse, but having gone many years without being able to battle, Pikachu is a little impatient to get back on the battlefield."

Anabel then looked at Brock, "How long ago was Pikachu injured, and what exactly happened then?"

Brock sighed, "If you want to know what happened, you need to ask Five. It isn't my place to tell you guys. As for when it happened, I don't know," he lied, "Five only told me that it has been many years."

Anabel sighed, "It really is too bad that Pikachu got hurt. I can tell how much he cares about his Pokémon, so having one of them get hurt so badly must have been incredibly hard on him. It also is terrible for Pikachu because I could sense that the little guy had an incredible fighting spirit. I hope Pikachu recovers soon, because he has the makings of an amazingly powerful Pokémon."

Brock laughed, "You have no idea." When everyone looked at him funny, Brock grinned, "Pikachu's injury is purely a physical thing. It only limits his capability to run, jump, and dodge. It does nothing to hamper his natural power. Five showed me one of Pikachu's thunderbolts and I nearly pissed myself at the power. The only reason he doesn't battle with Pikachu is because he doesn't have the defensive capabilities to take blows during a fight. As soon as Pikachu recovers his speed, he is going to be beyond powerful."

Everyone was staring at Brock after he told them about Pikachu's power. Max finally spoke up, "Well, I'm glad I don't have to fight Pikachu then. He sounds even stronger than the Houndoom. Are you sure you can't tell us what Five's other Pokémon are?"

"Wait, Brock, do you even know what his other Pokémon are?" Anabel asked. "I mean, you only needed to help him with Pikachu, so would he even show you his other Pokémon who he's trying to keep secret from everyone?"

Brock grinned, "I know all seven of his Pokémon. He wanted me to do a checkup on all of them to make sure they were all healthy."

This time Gary interrupted, "Wait, did you say seven Pokémon? Isn't that against the rules or something?"

Brock shook his head, "No. Normally it is against the rules, But Five got a special exception to the rules due to his Pikachu not being fit for battle. He is allowed to carry six Pokémon that are fit for battle as well as his Pikachu."

"Yes I am allowed to do that. I had to beg for a quite while in order to get that exception, but it was worth it."

The group turned quickly and saw Five grinning at them all. Pikachu was on his shoulder and Houndoom was at his side. He then spoke up, "Now, I'm not so good with names since I spend such little time with people, is there any chance we can do a round of introductions so that I can make sure I know all of you?"

Although that was a lie, he wanted to avoid making the same mistake he did with Paul, so he waited patiently through the introductions. Brock smirked at him once he realized what was going on and Ash had to suppress a smile. Once the introductions were done, Max spoke up, "Okay Five, I'm ready for the battle. Let's see what you got!"

Ash looked at the young trainer and smiled, "Of course. Let us see what I have got. Who knows, I might even pull off an upset and get a win here." He then walked away towards the nearest practice field and stood on the far side of it. Once he took his position, Max went and stood across from him. The other members of the little group decided to watch the battle and stood on the sidelines. Paul even came back from wherever he had gone to see the battle take place.

Brock stood in the middle of the field and raised his arms, "This is a one-on-one battle between Max Maple of Petalburg City and Five from somewhere. There will be no time limit and the battle will be over once one sides Pokémon is no longer able to battle. Begin" With that, Brock lowered his arms, signaling the start of the battle.

Ash looked at his Houndoom, "Houndoom, take the field and prepare for battle." Houndoom quickly entered the field of battle and roared. Max visibly flinched at the sound.

Before Max sent out his Pokémon, Ash spoke up, "First lesson, don't let your opponent or their Pokémon intimidate you. If you do, you will start out at a disadvantage. Clear your mind and focus solely on the battle, it will help you keep your focus and perform to the best of your ability."

Max nodded his head before grabbing his pokeball and tossing it, "Vigoroth, it's fight time!"

Vigoroth appeared on the battlefield and glared at his opponent. Seeing no reaction from the Houndoom, he looked questioningly at his trainer. Max gave a quick nod with a look of confidence on his face, restoring the confidence of the Vigoroth.

Ash smiled, "Good job Max, don't let your Pokémon be intimidated. If they do get intimidated, restore their confidence by showing them your confidence. Pokémon respond to their trainer's emotions and state of mind. Keeping your cool and staying focused will help your Pokémon as much as it will help you. Now, since you are the challenger, you get the first move."

In the audience, the trainers all listened with a bit of surprise as Five coached Max through the beginning of the battle. Brock smiled at the way Ash was treating his old friend while both May and Anabel were smiling at the kindness this mysterious new friend of theirs was displaying. Paul, who was standing next to Dawn, chuckled at this. When Dawn looked at him questioningly, he simply said: "Only he would coach his opponent on how to beat him." Dawn had a confused look on her face, but Paul wasn't going to say anything else so she returned her focus to the battlefield.

Max grinned, "Vigoroth, use water pulse and then charge in with brick break!"

Vigoroth grunted his approval and did just that. Immediately, a pulsing orb of water was flung towards the dark hound. At the same time, Vigoroth's claws started glowing as he charged his enemy.

Ash looked at the situation unfolding before him, "Houndoom, vaporize the water and then use the steam to hide yourself."

Houndoom launched a small jet of flames that instantly vaporized the water pulse attack. When the steam covered the field, he hid himself within it and was able to easily avoid Vigoroth's inaccurate strikes.

Ash could have called an attack out to end the match, but he wanted to see what else Max was capable of. The water pulse was a nice surprise, but it would take more than one little surprise to truly threaten Ash's Houndoom.

Max quickly analyzed the situation and started to panic at what had happened. Then he remembered the words Five had spoken about keeping his cool and how it would help his Pokémon as much as him. He took a deep calming breath before giving more orders. "Vigoroth, calm down and focus. Use blizzard to draw Houndoom out then charge a focus punch and as soon as you find Houndoom, use it to strike him."

Ash smiled. It was a good plan, unfortunately, Max had also told his opponent his intentions. The key to truly surprising your opponent is keeping your plans secret. He looked at the snow blowing across the field and decided to end it. "Houndoom, use overheat and then end it with iron tail."

What the crowd was expecting was for a large stream of fired to be fired off towards Vigoroth and then when he tried to dodge it, for him to be struck by an iron tail attack. What they weren't expecting was for a massive sphere of fire to appear in the middle of the blizzard attack and melt it. What they really didn't expect was for the sphere of fire to then move at a high speed towards Vigoroth. Both trainer and Pokémon were stunned by this strange attack and didn't realize until too late that they were supposed to be dodging it.

As the sphere approached Vigoroth, it jumped in the air and spun. It then made contact with the wild monkey Pokémon causing fire damage and a burn. The sphere then broke and a glowing white tail made contact with the Pokémon's head. Houndoom then jumped back to his trainer's side while Vigoroth fell to the ground unconscious.

After recovering from the initial shock, Brock brought a hand into the air, "Vigoroth is unable to battle, the winner of this battle is Five and Houndoom."

Ash smiled at Max as he recalled his fallen pokemon. "Max, you have quite a bit of talent. Keep working on it and in a few years you may be as good as I am. Now, do you want to hear what I noticed about your battle?"

Max nodded his head, "Yes, anything you have to say is bound to be good information, you're a great battler and I want to learn all I can."

Ash laughed, "I like your enthusiasm. You remind me of me. Anyways, your Vigoroth had some surprises for me, which is good. However, you did too much explaining to your Pokémon. You need to reach a level where you give commands and your Pokémon knows what you want it to do without extra talking. Sometimes, you won't even need to give the command for your Pokémon to know what you want to do. By explaining your whole plan to your Pokémon, you give your opponent a chance to attack you while you talk and you let your opponent know exactly what you're planning.

"I noticed that my last move surprised everyone here. That is because I didn't tell Houndoom to surround himself in the flames of his overheat. That caught you by surprise and gave me a large enough advantage that I was able to take out your Pokémon. It takes time and practice to be able to communicate without words, but it is a valuable skill when it comes to surprising your enemy and attacking quickly. Understand?"

Max nodded his head quite vigorously, "Yes. I think so anyways. I hope I can do that soon. It sounds really cool and it worked quite well for you. You are AWESOME!"

Ash laughed, "I don't know about that, I just have a lot more experience than you. Battle enough different people under enough different circumstances and you will learn these things on your own."

Paul then decided to be annoying, "So, Five, you say you have many experiences battling many trainers in different circumstances. Do you mind telling us about your league battles or gym battles? Have you ever competed against any of the trainers in the Battle Frontier?"

Ash glared at Paul while Paul simply smirked at the situation. After looking around, Ash realized that he now pretty much had to answer. "I don't like talking about my past battles too much, but if you must know, I have made it to the final sixteen in the Kanto Pokémon League Competition. I have done more than that, but that is all I feel like telling you guys. At least for now. Anyways, if any of you guys wish to battle my Houndoom, feel free. I'm willing to give out battle advice as well if you want it."

After getting people back on the topic of battling him, Ash spent the next hour and a half battling almost everyone. Paul had wondered off to train alone again and Anabel didn't want to battle him until the competition started, but everyone else tried at least once to take down Houndoom.

After the hour and a half of nonstop battles, Houndoom had gotten quite tired. Not defeated, but he probably wouldn't have lasted much longer. Ash decided to rest Houndoom before he fainted. Once Ash had finally announced he was done with practice battles, every stared at him until he got uncomfortable. "Uh, why are you all staring at me like that? Is there something on my face?"

Eventually Anabel spoke up, "Just how strong are your Pokémon? Your Houndoom just battled for over an hour without fainting. If all six of your Pokémon are that strong, you are going to be a real challenge to beat."

Ash grinned, "All of my Pokémon are this strong. I train them all as equally as possible. As for this tournament, I don't know how well I will do. I haven't had a full six on six battle in nearly three years. I haven't lost more than two Pokémon in a battle in three years as well. Most of my excitement for this tournament is to see how I rank against the league champions of each region. Since they are supposedly the strongest in the world, I'm hoping that I can end up ranked among the best."

"Wait," Said May, "what exactly have you been doing for the last three years then?"

Ash had to suppress a groan for letting a little bit of his timeline slip. "Well, I have been training my Pokémon and travelling. I finally decided it was time to test myself and my Pokémon so I entered this tournament."

Max looked up at Ash, "Well, I'm pretty sure you could give the champions a run for their money with your skill level. What are your plans for after this tournament?"

"Well, I haven't really decided yet. I will probably continue travelling though," Ash told him. "Being out in nature with wild Pokémon and my Pokémon is incredibly fun so hopefully I can continue my travels for a long time. Anyways, I'm heading out now. Houndoom is a little tired and my other Pokémon want to get some training done, so I will see you guys later."

As Ash turned to head back into the forest, May spoke up, "Hey Five, do you mind if I come with you for a little bit?"

Ash considered it, "I suppose you can come for a little bit, but I do need to train eventually."

With that, Ash walked into the forest with May just a few steps behind him.

After a few minutes of silence, Ash decided to speak up, "So, May, is there anything you wanted?"

May didn't answer immediately, instead thinking about why exactly she _had_ wanted to go for a walk with Five. After a little bit she answered, "Well, I wanted to say thanks for helping my brother. He's always wanted to be a Pokémon trainer and seeing you help him get better even though he's your opponent was really nice."

Ash smiled, "Well, I know what it's like to be a young trainer, trying to be the best. Along the way, many of my opponents helped me and taught me to be better, I was just passing down the same knowledge."

"Do you mind telling me about your journey as a trainer?" May asked, "I mean, you seem like a nice guy, but none of us really know anything about you. You use a codename and keep your Pokémon hidden from us. You have obviously seen a lot and grown a lot as a trainer and I'm curious as to the details."

Ash sighed, "Well, my journey was exciting, I guess. I travelled through many different regions and places. I collected gym badges and competed in several leagues. I befriend as many people and Pokémon as I could, although lately it has mostly been Pokémon since I have been living out in the wilderness of Mt. Silver."

May thought about what Ash had said and was about to ask for more details when Ash decided to change the subject, "How about you, May? I don't really know anything about you or your friends. I know that Brock is a doctor, Misty is a gym leader, Max is a trainer, and Anabel is a Frontier Brain, but I don't really know anything about you."

"Well," May began, "I'm a coordinator. I take part in contests with my Pokémon to show off their beauty. Over the course of my journey, I have been to many regions and competed in contests in all of them. Two years ago, I won the Grand Festival in Johto."

Ash grinned; hearing about the success of his friend was a gratifying experience. He hoped that soon he would be able to share his successes with everyone as well. "That's pretty impressive May, good job. Do you have any rivals you have to deal with that push you to be your best?"

"Well, yes I do. I think all trainers who take part in some competition or another do," May stated. "At the beginning, my biggest rival was a guy named Drew, but I haven't seen him in a couple of years. Actually, I've been avoiding competing in the same region as him. Lately, my biggest rival is Dawn. Initially, we competed in different regions, but we met through a mutual friend and became friends. A few years ago we began travelling together and competing. Travelling with a rival is strange, but she is also a friend which makes it better."

"So, has Dawn won any Grand Festival's yet?" Ash asked.

May smiled, "Actually, she won in Kanto last year. She barely beat me, but she did manage to. It was a terrific battle, but she got back at me for knocking her out of the competition in Johto the previous year."

Ash laughed, "Sounds like you two have a lot of fun travelling together. Do you have any plans for competing next year?"

May sighed, "Not yet. I want to travel some more with Dawn, but with her in a relationship with Paul, I would feel awkward tagging along with them. I'm thinking I might just head out on my own and compete in Hoenn."

"Well, striking out on your own for a journey isn't that bad of an idea," Ash said. "I mean, you lose the human companionship, but it gives you a lot more time with your Pokémon to bond and train."

May looked over at Ash, "Have you always travelled alone, or did you once travel alongside friends as well?"

"Well, actually, I did travel with friends at the start of my Pokémon journey. However, there came a time when I came upon the same problem you are having. My friends started relationships and I would have felt awkward travelling with them, so I struck it out on my own. I've been travelling this way ever since."

"Does it get lonely?" May asked. "I mean, I understand you have your Pokémon with you, but don't you miss spending time with people?"

Ash sighed, "I suppose I do miss the human companionship, but I'm still young and will have plenty of time for that later. Once I start tiring of walking across the world and settle down somewhere, I will have the rest of my life to spend with people. Or, I might decide to travel for the rest of my life and if someone decides they want to travel with me, I could get companionship that way as well. For now though, I am perfectly happy with just me and my Pokémon."

At that, Houndoom barked and Pikachu grinned happily. Ash laughed at his Pokémon, "Yes Houndoom, I know you will eat anyone who tries to take me away from you. Calm down."

May looked from Houndoom to Pikachu to Ash, "Hey Five, since I'm not a competitor here, can you show me your Pokémon if I promise not to tell anyone what they are?"

Ash thought about her request for a little bit before answering, "Sorry, but no. You seem quite close to your brother and although you probably wouldn't tell him anything, it would be easy for something to just slip out. Then word would spread about my Pokémon and the surprise would be ruined."

May sighed, "Well, once you have shown your Pokémon at the tournament, I want to see them. Anyways, I'm going to head back to my friends and help my brother prepare for the tournament, thanks again for everything."

Ash smiled, "It was my pleasure. Helping people grow stronger and connect better with their Pokémon is a fun thing to do. Good luck and I will see you later."

May smiled before giving Ash a hug. The gesture surprised Ash and made him blush. Before he could respond though, May broke away and ran back towards the Pokémon center.

Pikachu looked at Ash questioningly, "Pika pi, chu pi pika?" he asked.

Houndoom laughed at his trainer while Ash tried to glare at the electric mouse through his blush. Finally he settled with a sigh, "I don't know buddy. It's bad enough that I have a crush on one person. Trying to deal with two is going to be really obnoxious. I know I'm going to have choose one of them to work on and grow eventually, but right now, I don't know what to do."

Together, the trainer and his Pokémon walked back to the clearing by the lake. Once there, the rest of his Pokémon were released from their balls and the training started up once more.

-Pokémon Center practice fields-

Back on the practice fields, the young trainer named Max was busy working with his Pokémon. He was teaching them new attacks as well as strengthening the attacks they already knew. He had also begun working on communicating silently with his Pokémon, trying to make it so they would know what he wanted them to do without extra explanations.

From the sidelines, the groups own Pokémon doctor watched in amusement and slight awe. "Wow Max, you really took Five's advice to heart, didn't you?"

Max looked up from his training, "Well, it was good advice and it came from a powerful trainer. I might not be able to perfect everything in time for the tournament, but it will help me in the future to be an even better trainer."

Brock smiled at the boys enthusiasm, "I know, and you seem to be making pretty good progress as well. Just be careful and don't push your Pokémon too hard, this would be a terrible time for one of your Pokémon to sustain a serious injury."

Max nodded his head, "I know, don't worry. I won't push my Pokémon too hard."

As Max continued to train, a young man with spiky brown hair walked over to Brock. "It looks like he's making pretty good progress as well, I see," Gary observed.

Brock nodded his head, "Yeah, he really took Five's advice and has been working really hard. How about Misty and Anabel? You've been watching them train and battle for a while, how are they doing?"

"Well, they tried battling, but Misty got frustrated by Anabel's battle style and started working on honing her Pokémon's moves instead of continuing to battle," Gary answered. "They both seem to be making some progress and took Five's advice into consideration for training. At least Misty did, since Anabel didn't battle him, she didn't get any pointers from him."

Brock nodded, "Well, that's good to hear. That guy, Five, is quite the impressive trainer, especially considering his young age. It's really something else."

"Oh yeah," Gary agreed, "I was really surprised to see how powerful his Houndoom was. He lasted for over an hour of battling before getting tired. Since Five wants to keep his Pokémon secret as long as possible, I have a feeling it's going to be a long time until we see any of his other ones."

"Well, I have seen his other Pokémon and they are impressive," Brock bragged, "it is astounding how gifted they all are, although based on what Five told me about his training and life, it doesn't surprise me too much that they are powerful."

Gary glanced over at Brock again, "Oh yeah, he let you see all of his Pokémon, I forgot about that. I suppose you won't give me any hints about them?" Brock shook his head no and Gary laughed. "Oh well, I guess I'm just going to have to wait and see. Can you tell me anything about his past? You seem to know more about that than anyone else here."

Brock sighed, "Sorry, but I can't. He made me promise not to tell anyone. However, I made him promise that he would tell you guys eventually, so just be patient and you will learn more about him."

Seeing that he wasn't going to get anything else out of Brock about Five, Gary decided to change the subject. "May has been gone with him for quite some time, do you think she likes him?"

Brock laughed, "Who knows? I do know that it's really easy to talk to Five, so she could have just gotten wrapped up in a conversation and lost track of time. If she does like him though, I don't think she's alone."

"Oh? You think someone else likes him as well?" Gary asked.

Brock grinned, "Yeah, I mean have you seen the way Anabel talks about him? Or did you see the way she was focused on him during his battles and not the opponent or the Pokémon? If I had to guess, I would say both Anabel and May like him."

Gary laughed, "Well, that should make this tournament a little more interesting. A little extra drama on the side, I guess. What about Five, do you think he likes either of them?"

After pondering that question for a few seconds he answered, "You know what? I have no clue. It wouldn't surprise me if he did, but he hasn't really shown too much interest in the girls."

Gary thought about that for a few seconds before laughing, "This guy reminds me of Ash. Completely oblivious to the women and only caring about being the best trainer out there. He even has a Pikachu to boot."

Brock gave a nervous chuckle, "You know, I guess that he is like Ash, isn't he? I wonder if Five has ever met Ash before, if so, I'm sure it was an interesting meeting."

Gary, who hadn't noticed Brock's sudden awkwardness plowed on, "I bet that would be an interesting meeting. A great battle as well with those two fiery trainers. Next time I see him, I'll make sure to ask him if he's ever met Ash before."

Brock nodded his head, "Well Gary, it looks like there are some Pokémon that need a little bit of healing from me, so we can continue this conversation later. Make sure you let me know how your talk with Five goes."

Gary nodded before walking back over to Misty and Anabel's training field.

-Evening. Ash's training grounds by the lake-

After a hard day of training, Ash was relaxing peacefully by the lake. His Pokémon were all off playing around in the surrounding woods except for Pikachu who was resting next to his trainer.

Ash turned to look at Pikachu, "Hey buddy, if Anabel shows up, which story do you think I should tell her? I can't reveal too much about who I am, but I promised I would tell her a story from my travels."

Pikachu looked up at his trainer, "Chu pika pi, pi pika pi." Pikachu then fell over laughing at his trainer.

Ash groaned, "I should have known you wouldn't be very helpful. And I am not in love with any one, so stop saying that."

Pikachu just gave Ash a questioning look before laughing some more. Eventually, he calmed down and smiled at his trainer, "Pika pi, pi chu pika."

Ash contemplated his Pokémon's words, "I suppose I can tell that story. It won't reveal too much about me and it is a good story. Thanks Pikachu."

Pikachu nodded and the two went back to looking at the lake and the forest. After a few more minutes had passed, Ash was beginning to fall asleep. Pikachu, however, was actually alert and heard the sounds of someone approaching. Being the wonderful Pokémon he is, Pikachu decided to electrocute his trainer to get his attention.

Ash jumped from the shock and glared at the little mouse Pokémon that was laughing at the face his trainer had made after being shocked. "Thanks for that Pikachu. You didn't need to shock me."

Pikachu just smiled and pointed behind Ash. When he turned to look, he saw Anabel walk out of the forest and into the clearing.

With a smile on his face, Ash stood up, "Good evening Anabel, how are you doing?"

Anabel smiled, "I'm doing fine. How about you?"

"I'm doing pretty good. Just relaxing after a day of training and goofing off," Ash answered.

Anabel walked over to where Ash had been sitting and sat down. Ash followed suit while Pikachu just grinned at his trainer.

Anabel saw the grinning Pikachu and smiled, "What's got him so excited?" She asked.

Ash smirked at his Pokémon, "He's just excited because he wants to play with Espeon again."

This caused Pikachu to blush and shock his trainer while Ash just laughed at him. Anabel watched all of this in amusement before letting her Espeon out of its ball. Espeon looked at her trainer and Five before smiling. She nudged her trainer who just glared at the Pokémon before pointing Espeon to Pikachu. Upon seeing Pikachu, Espeon walked over to him and the two Pokémon walked off into the forest to talk.

The two trainers smiled at the sight before Anabel spoke up, "Our Pokémon seem to get along pretty well. In fact, I think they like each other."

Ash smiled, "Pikachu has always been a friendly Pokémon. Plus, for some reason Eevee's and their evolutions seem to take a special interest him."

Anabel looked questioningly at Ash, "Really? That's interesting, I wonder why that is."

Ash just shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know why they all like Pikachu more than most Pokémon do, but Pikachu doesn't mind, he likes the friends and attention. The only reason I brought this up though, was because you had wanted me to tell you a story from my travels."

That remark brightened Anabel's face, "Really? You're going to tell me about one of your adventures?"

Ash nodded, "Yes I will, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. At least not yet. After this tournament, you can tell whoever you want, but for now, I want to keep as much of my history a secret as possible."

Anabel nodded, "Don't worry, I promise not to tell anyone. So I take it this story has to do with Pikachu and an Eevee?"

"Yes indeed it does," Ash confirmed. "It has to do with the Eevee that I caught a few years back. This is the only hint about a Pokémon on my team that I will give you. I have an evolved Eevee."

"Really? I can't wait to see it in the tournament. I also can't wait to see how strong it is and how well it has been trained."

Ash grinned, "Once you see her, you won't ever forget. She's incredibly playful and is also quite strong. Anyways, this story is about how I met Eevee and caught her. Pikachu's the one that told me to tell you this story and I'm surprised he didn't stick around for it since he's a major player in the story, but here goes.

"It was a few years back. I had been travelling alone for a couple of months and was camping out on the outskirts of Mt. Moon. I had set up camp and let my Pokémon out. At that point in time, I had Pikachu, Houndoom, and two others. As I was making dinner for my Pokémon and myself, Pikachu wandered off into the wilderness to explore and look around. I didn't pay it too much attention because I knew Pikachu could stay out of trouble and wouldn't cause problems.

"Anyways, as I was finishing cooking, I heard a massive electrical discharge and the following explosion. I could only think of one thing that could have caused it, so I immediately took off in search of Pikachu. Houndoom followed me while I told my other two Pokémon to keep an eye on the campsite.

"After running for a couple of miles, I came upon a clearing that looked like it was the victim of one of Pikachu's thunder attacks. I took a look around and saw Pikachu hunched over a smaller figure and a Flareon. In the middle of the clearing, right were the thunder had struck, I saw two teens. They were unconscious and appeared to be injured. My natural instinct was to help them, but I figured Pikachu had attacked them for some reason so I decided to ask him what was going on.

"Pikachu told me that the two kids had been beating on the Flareon and her newly hatched baby Eevee for some reason. Pikachu had been enraged by this and electrocuted them. I ordered Houndoom to keep an eye on the two teens and make sure they remained unconscious for a while. I then went over to try and help the baby Pokémon and its mother.

"When I arrived, the baby Eevee called out in fear of me. She thought I was going to attack her like the others had done. I promised not to hurt her, but she didn't trust me at that point. Since I wasn't going to be able to help her, I gave Pikachu some bandages and potions to help the Eevee out. I then went to check on the Flareon.

"When I saw the poor Flareon it was horrible. She had been beaten badly and wasn't doing too well. If she wanted to live, she was going to need emergency medical help that I couldn't provide. I looked around for anything that might help me save the Flareon, but I didn't see anything. As I was beginning to believe that I wouldn't be able to save the Flareon, a local Fearow flew down and landed by me. This gave me an idea.

"I told the Fearow where the nearest Pokémon Center was and ordered him to carry the badly hurt Flareon there for treatment. I promised I would get there as quickly as I could to check up on her.

"For the next three days, I couldn't leave my camp because the Eevee was incapable of moving. The baby still didn't trust me, so Pikachu took care of her the entire time. The teens who had beaten the Pokémon I kept tied up in my camp. I provided them with a little bit of food and water and nothing else. If they had to go to the bathroom, Houndoom would follow them the whole way and make sure they didn't try to escape.

"Once Eevee was capable of walking on her own, we set off towards the Pokémon Center I had sent the Flareon to. Late in the day, around dinnertime, we finally reached it. By this point, the baby Eevee was exhausted and had finally allowed me to carry her. When I walked into the Pokémon Center, a Fearow jumped in front of me and began squawking.

"Once it finished, it fled the Pokémon Center and left me alone in it. I looked around and saw Nurse Joy looking at me with a questioning face. I smiled at her and told her that I had sent that Fearow here with an injured Flareon a few days ago. The nurse then led me into a room where a Flareon was asleep but alive. She had me explain what had happened and once I did, she called Officer Jenny to deal with the two tied up teens in the lobby of the Pokémon Center.

"The Eevee immediately went and curled up with her mother and I figured that that was the end of the story. I decided to stay the night at the Pokémon Center before heading out again the next day.

"As I was leaving the center though, the baby Eevee followed me out. After talking with Pikachu for a bit and then turning to me, it asked if it could travel with me in order to help rid the world of evil and terrible people. I was hesitant to accept her, but after talking to the Flareon, I finally agreed to take the Eevee with me on my journey. The end."

When Ash finished telling his story, he looked up to see Anabel smiling at him with tears in her eyes. "That is a wonderful story. I'm so glad that you were able to save the Pokémon and get the people responsible punished. I must ask though, have you seen the mother Flareon since then?"

Ash nodded his head, "Yeah, I've stopped by that region a few times to let the Eevee meet up with her mother. Flareon doesn't have the want to travel though, so she stays over by Mt. Moon while her child stays with me."

"Did you ever figure out why the two people had been beating the Flareon and her child?"

Ash shook his head, "I didn't. I didn't really care either. In my opinion, there is no excuse for beating a Pokémon, especially a baby one. After Officer Jenny took them away, I never saw them again."

Anabel nodded her head, "I agree with you on that, there is no reason to abuse a Pokémon like that. Still, I wonder what was going on in their minds that made them do that? Regardless, I'm glad that story had a happy ending. If it weren't for you, things probably wouldn't have gone so well. You are a good person."

Ash smiled, "Thanks. I just try to do what I think is right. So far, that has served me well. I'm also sure that if you had been in my place you would have done the right thing as well."

"Thanks, Five. You really are a great guy. Don't forget that or let anyone tell you otherwise."

Ash just smiled and watched as the sun sunk below the trees and the moon rose overhead. For quite some time, the two trainers sat there doing nothing, just resting in the comfortable silence that had fallen between them. Eventually, the rustling of Pokémon brought them back to reality.

Ash looked over and saw that Pikachu and Espeon had returned. He could also see Lucario just behind the line of trees watching him. Ash sighed and stood up, "Well Anabel, it was nice talking with you and just relaxing. However, it is getting late and my Pokémon are waiting for me, so I think I'm going to gather them and then head back to the Pokémon Center for the night."

Anabel stood up as well and stretched after having spent such a long time sitting down. She turned to look at Ash and then noticed some movement from the trees. She tried to see what it was but whatever it had been, it wasn't there anymore. "Hey Five, did something just move in the trees?" She asked him.

Ash looked at her and grinned, "Yeah, my Pokémon are getting a bit restless here." He then lifted up several pokeballs and pointed them one at a time into the forest, silently recalling each of his Pokémon.

Anabel nodded, "Well, I guess we should head off to the center now, shouldn't we?"

Ash nodded and then began leading the way through the forest, back towards the Pokémon Center. As they were walking, Ash had a strange thought, "Hey Anabel? Do you know much about the format of this tournament? I never really looked into it."

Ash turned his head towards the sound of muffled laughter and saw Anabel covering her mouth with her hand and trying to suppress giggles. "Wow Five. You really need to get out more. All people have been talking about for the past year is this tournament and how it works."

Ash smiled sheepishly before gesturing for Anabel to continue. "Anyways, the tournament has three stages. The first stage is the preliminaries. Each trainer will take part in five 3-on-3 battles. Once you lose twice, you are out. After that, there should be about 250 trainers left and the tournament will move onto the second stage. That consists of four rounds of 4-on-4 battles. Single elimination. The trainers will decide before the battle whether it will be a single battle or double battle. Once the second stage is done, there will be 16 trainers left. In the final stage, it will be full 6-on-6 single battles until only one trainer remains to claim the victory. Does that make sense?"

Ash thought about it before nodding his head. "Yeah, thanks. Now I can plan out which two Pokémon I will use for the second stage. Anyways, we're back at the center, so I guess I will see you later. Good night Anabel."

Anabel smiled at him, "Good night Five. Good luck with your planning and I'll see you tomorrow. Unless you vanish or something."

Ash nodded before heading off to get some sleep.

**Hahaha, the chapter is completed. Three down, an unknown number left to go.**

**Anyways, I hope you guys are enjoying my story still. I plan on completing it eventually, but it is a large tournament, plus there is all the other drama ish stuff going on, so the story will probably be pretty long. I mean, we're 30,000 words in and the tournament hasn't even started yet. On the other hand, chapter four will be the last before the tournament starts, so there is that.**

**Speaking of the tournament, I am capable of creating opponents and Pokémon lineups for people to face, but if you want to create your own and send them to me, I will try to use them. One thing to keep in mind though, I'm sure you've noticed it, but I am ignoring Unova and the fifth generation stuff. I might throw it in in a different story, but for this one I am not using it.**

**The reason I am not doing Unova stuff is because I haven't played the games or seen the show for it. I also haven't read the manga for it either. This means the only way for me to judge the Pokémon and Characters is by what I read online, and that isn't quite enough for me to feel comfortable using the stuff yet.**

**Anyways, like always, if you have something to say to me about this story, whether it's a suggestion, idea, praise, or criticism, let me know in a review or PM.**

**Last thing, my poll is still up and will remain up for a while. I currently have no story planned out to write next, but I don't doubt that inspiration will hit me. Once it does hit and I start my next story I will take down the poll. If you want to vote on a pairing for Ash in my next story, then vote. That is all.**

**Tata for now.**

_**As I thought, this one didn't need much editing of events. I fixed some more spelling/grammar things, but that was it. The next several chapters might have some altered events though, so be prepared.**_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	4. Chapter 4

_**This is where I would expect more major edits to begin taking place. Any events that I change I will leave a note about at the bottom**_

**Chapter 4**

**Hey guys, I have a request. Can someone send me a list of all the different shipping's and who they involve? I'm new to this whole thing and haven't figured them all out yet. Please and thank you.**

**I am making quite a bit of progress here. Not even a week into it and the story already has over 30,000 words in it. I'm proud of myself.**

**Now, let this progress I have been making continue.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

-Practice fields-

As the final week before the tournament nears its end, we find a group of trainers down on a practice field. The group consists of Max, May, Misty, Gary, Brock, Dawn, Paul, and Anabel. During the week of training, Anabel had begun to find a place in the small group of friends and Paul had even warmed up to them slightly. The group appears to be happy, but tension can be felt once you get close enough.

After spending a week training, the four entrants in the competition are feeling the stress and pressure that is building, even if some of them are better at hiding it. Never before had such a competition been held, so even those used to dealing with pressure were finding it stressful.

For most of the morning, the group had been chatting idly about nothing in particular, however, that changed when Max asked Brock a question. "Hey Brock, how goes the healing of Five's Pikachu?"

The mention of the still mysterious man brought everyone's focus back to the conversation. Although Five had been around, he never stayed for long and he wasn't much for talking. In fact, several people in the group were beginning to believe that the man was avoiding them. Still, Brock answered the question, "Pikachu is getting better. It's slow progress, but he is beginning to show signs of improvement. If he can keep it up, he should be able to fight again by the end of the tournament."

Gary then butted in, "Hey Brock, do you know where Five is? I've been meaning to talk to him but he hasn't been around enough for me to do so."

Brock pointed to the forest, "Go straight in that way until you find a creek. Follow the creek until he finds you. If he isn't there, then I don't know where he is."

Gary nodded, "Thanks Brock. I'll be back in a bit, but for now, I'm off to go find Five." He then left the group and walked into the forest.

After walking for about 20 minutes, Gary found the creek and could hear the sounds of battle from up ahead. Deciding that he was going the right way, he followed the creek upstream. Before he could make it to the sounds of battle though, a figure stepped in front of him, blocking his path.

Gary looked at the man in front of him and spoke, "Hey Five, I've been meaning to talk to you but I haven't been able to find a good time, so I decided to look for you."

Ash sighed, "Okay, well you found me. What can I do for you?"

Gary thought about that before answering, "Well, as you may or may not know, I'm a Pokémon researcher. I was wondering if I could look at your Pikachu and see how his injury has affected him. Or maybe I could measure the temperature of Houndoom's fire. Things like that."

Ash laughed, "I guess you can, although for now you're going to have to stick with Pikachu because Houndoom is busy training." With that, the Pikachu on Ash's shoulder jumped over to Gary to be examined.

Gary looked over Pikachu and seemed to focus on the Pokémon's face. He then proceeded to poke and prod the poor guy until Pikachu let out a small thundershock. Ash laughed at the sight, but Gary got a triumphant smile.

"Just as I thought," he announced. "At first, you reminded me a lot of my old rival and friend Ash Ketchum. After a few days though, I began to wonder if perhaps you were him and that is why you seemed so friendly and yet also seemed to be avoiding us. If you had wanted to remain secret from me, you shouldn't have handed your Pikachu over to a trained researcher. I can differentiate between almost all of the different Pokémon of each species I have met. It is obvious to me that this is none other than Ash's Pikachu, meaning that you are Ash."

Ash groaned, "Fine. You got me, but please don't tell anyone. I'm going to tell them soon, but it's still too early."

Gary smirked, "Well Ashey-boy, I won't tell them, but you have to do a few things for me first."

"Fine. What do you want from me?"

Gary smiled, "It's quite simple. I want to see your current party of Pokémon. I also want to know how Pikachu got injured and what you have been doing the past three years."

Ash thought about the requests before giving in, "Fine, but don't tell anyone what I tell you and show you. They will all know about it soon enough. Pikachu got his scar and injury from Team Rocket three years ago. I then spent the next two years working on shutting down Team Rocket. Once I succeeded, I moved into the wilderness of Mt. Silver and have been training there for the past year."

"So you defeated Team Rocket. Good job. You know, I heard a rumor that the newest Frontier Brain is the guy who defeated Team Rocket. Does that make you the new Frontier Brain?"

Ash grinned, "Yeah. I ran into Scott about a month ago and he gave me the offer as well as telling me about this tournament. Anyways, here are my current Pokémon."

As they had talked, Ash had led his former rival to the clearing and the lake where his Pokémon were busy training. Gary looked around at the various Pokémon and seemed impressed by it all.

He turned to face Ash and spoke up, "Well, I had thought it unlikely, but it appears that all of your Pokémon are indeed as strong as your Houndoom. I'm not sure how you did it, but these Pokémon are going to be quite a challenge to defeat in the tournament."

Ash smiled at his former rival, "Well, all of these Pokémon were trained to defeat Team Rocket. Except for Porygon-Z. I found him in their lab after destroying them and he decided to join me. Still, they have all been through intense training since they joined me and have all become quite strong. Feel free to observe them, but be careful about getting too close while they are training, as I'm sure you have noticed, my Pokémon aren't all the most social with people. Especially not while they are training."

Gary nodded, "Okay, I suppose I can do that."

After some time had passed, Gary spoke up, "So Ash, why did you evolve your Eevee into a Jolteon if you were planning on having Pikachu fully healed and battle ready? Wouldn't that make Jolteon a redundant Pokémon to have with you?"

Ash smiled, "Well, I didn't evolve Eevee into Jolteon. Eevee did. When I first got Eevee, she was young and grew incredibly fond of Pikachu, looking up to him as a father of sorts. Once Eevee reached the stage where she was ready to evolve, she wanted to be just like Pikachu and decided to evolve into a Jolteon. Right now, Jolteon is my fastest Pokémon, although Staraptor is a close second."

Gary nodded, "I suppose that makes sense. Baby Pokémon tend to do that if they can. With Pikachu being the oldest Pokémon around and also a similar size to the Eevee, he would make a good father for Eevee. From the looks of things though, it would appear that all of your Pokémon are family to each other."

"Yes they are," Ash said with a grin on his face. "They all train together, fight together, live together, and bond with each other. So, is there anything else you want from me?"

"Yeah, but it can wait. I want to know the full story of what you have been doing the past three years, but I can wait for you to tell everyone because it's probably a long story you only want to tell once."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, it is a long story, but I will tell everyone once I have told them who I am. Speaking of which, I'm actually surprised they haven't recognized me yet. I didn't change too much, did I?"

Gary contemplated this, "Well, your personality is still the same as it was before hand, but everything else about you is different. You're about a foot taller and you seem to be in great shape, not the scrawny kid you used to be. You left at the beginning of the changes your body made and are coming back towards the end of those changes. You no longer have the same childish appearance; instead you appear to be a grown man. It's still weird for me to think of you as the little Ash who used to be my rival. Having not been with you through all the changes, the drastic difference in your appearance makes it hard to tell that you are the same guy who used to travel with them all."

Ash thought about that before responding, "I guess that makes sense, but still, I don't feel like I've changed too much. Anyways, I'm going to get back to my training. If you want to stick around you can, but I'm sure your girlfriend is missing you since you've been gone so long."

When Gary blushed, Ash laughed. Gary glared at Ash, "Well, that's funny coming from you. I seem to recall you used to travel around the world with pretty girls at your side and never figured out how to get a girlfriend."

Ash laughed again, "Back then, getting a girlfriend was the last thing on my mind. I simply had no interest in the idea."

Now Gary smirked at Ash, "You said 'back then', does that mean that now there is a girl you're interested in?"

Ash quickly turned away, "No way, the only thing I care about right now is winning this tournament."

Gary laughed, "I can't believe it, little Ashey-boy is growing up and taking an interest in girls. So, who is it?"

Still refusing to look at Gary, Ash responded, "It's nobody. I told you, I only care about winning this tournament."

"Really? Then why won't you look at me? Is it May? Or maybe it's that Frontier Brain, Anabel? Or is it one of the girls currently in a relationship? You can tell me, I won't tell anyone."

Ash walked away from Gary and over to his Lucario, "Hey Lucario, want to do some sparring with me?" He asked. Lucario nodded and the two took their positions and began.

Gary watched this and smirked again, "Fine, be that way. I'll find out eventually though. Anyways, I'm heading back to the group, I'll see you later." He then turned back into the forest and headed towards the Pokémon Center.

-Practice fields-

As the week had passed, many more trainers had shown up for the tournament. Gym leaders from all four regions as well as powerful trainers trickled in and took up space. The practice fields were now so crowded that no group could hold more than one field. This left Misty, Max, Paul, and Anabel to try and share a field while the rest of the group observed from the sidelines.

Eventually, Paul went off into the forest to train alone while everyone else decided to stay put. As the training was about to resume, a familiar melodic voice was heard, "Why hello my friends. It is good to see you all once more."

The group turned to see a tall man with long black hair. On his head was a forest green hat while around his shoulders was a cape of the same color. The man held a golden mew-shaped harp in his hands.

Those that knew the man smiled at him and Dawn spoke up, "Hey Nando, what are you doing here?"

Nando smiled at the young coordinator, "Hello to you too Dawn. I am here for the competition that starts tomorrow. My Pokémon and I have been training for the past year for this. Our musical talents have been honed so we could compete at such a high level. If I may ask though, who are the rest of these people? I do not know most of them."

This time May spoke up, "Well Nando, you already know me, Dawn, and Brock. Paul went off somewhere to go train. This little guy is my little brother Max while the orange-haired girl is the Cerulean City gym leader Misty. The girl with purple hair is Anabel, the Salon Maiden of the Battle Frontier. We have a couple more friends who aren't here at the moment. One of them is Misty's boyfriend Gary. Gary is a Pokémon researcher from Pallet town. The other is a rather mysterious man whom we met here who goes by the name Five."

Nando smiled at all the people gathered around on the practice field, "Well, it is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you and I hope to meet these other friends of yours soon as well." Nando then played a few chords on his harp before continuing, "Now, you must tell me, is Ash in this tournament? My Pokémon have been looking forward to a rematch with him."

The group frowned before Brock spoke up, "Unfortunately, there is no one named Ash in the tournament's registry. However, I have a hard time believing he will remain gone for much longer. It has been three years after all and he probably misses us."

Nando sighed, "Well, it is disappointing to hear that Ash is not here, but alas, my Pokémon and I shall have musical battles until we can battle no more. Would anyone like to have a practice battle with me? I would like a warm-up before the competition begins."

"Well, I don't know you or your battle style, so it would be good practice for me to battle you," Max said. "If you would like, I will battle you."

Nando smiled, "Of course. I would be delighted to participate in a battle with you. If you are as good at battling as your sister is at contests, then this should be a terrific battle."

Max looked at Nando in question, "Do you mean that you do contests as well as battles? Isn't that a little hard to handle?"

Nando smiled at Max, "Well, my Pokémon love to show off their many talents in all forms of competition. As such, they simply demand I allow them to partake in both contests and battles. Now, how about a two-on-two battle for now?"

Max grinned before running to one end of the field, "Sure, sounds good. Brock, can you be the judge?"

Brock nodded before walking to the middle of the field on the side. "This will be a two-on-two single battle between Max Maple from Petalburg city and Nando from Sinnoh. The battle will be over when one trainers Pokémon are unable to continue battling. There will be no time limit. Begin."

With that, both trainers grabbed a pokeball and threw it onto the field. In a flash of light, two Pokémon and appeared and looked at each other.

In front of Max stood a red lobster like Pokémon with a large gold star on its forehead. He stood on two powerful legs and had two more powerful pincer-like claws protruding like arms. Crawdaunt grinned at his opponent before slamming his pincers into the ground to try and intimidate his enemy.

Standing in front of the Crawdaunt was a blue bird with cloudlike wings. The Altaria flew around the field a little bit while singing a few notes in preparation for the battle. She then landed in front of Nando and smiled at Crawdaunt.

Nando spoke up, "You may have the first move."

"Crawdaunt, use ice beam and follow it up with night slash!" Max called out.

Crawdaunt responded by opening one of his pincer hands and blasting a beam of ice towards the graceful dragon.

Nando saw the attack and called out, "Hurry Altaria, dodge the attack and retaliate with sing!"

Altaria immediately swooped up in the sky to avoid the ice attack and stay out of range of Crawdaunt's night slash. She then opened her mouth and sang a lovely tune that sent musical notes down towards the determined lobster. Crawdaunt tried to run from the music, but was not able to accomplish the task.

Max watched as his Pokémon fell asleep on the battlefield and cringed. "Crawdaunt, wake up! You need to get up and use ice beam again!" He called out, but the Pokémon remained asleep.

Nando decided to take advantage of the sleeping Pokémon. "Now Altaria, use sky attack on Crawdaunt."

Altaria flew higher up into the sky before her whole body glowed a white color. Once the attack was finished charging, she flew down at a high speed towards the sleeping Pokémon. The attack hit and did quite a bit of damage to Crawdaunt, but the attack also woke him up again. He heard his trainer calling for an ice beam and immediately launched one at the retreating dragon.

The beam scored a direct hit, knocking Altaria out of the air and onto the ground. Max saw Altaria falling and called out his next attack, "Now Crawdaunt, use bubblebeam and crabhammer!"

Crawdaunt immediately launched a volley of powerful bubbles out of one pincer while the other one began glowing white. As the bubbles were being fired, Crawdaunt ran towards the falling enemy to prepare his strike.

Nando saw all this happening and called out, "Altaria, use dragon pulse on Crawdaunt and then fly back into the sky!"

Altaria turned so she was facing into the onslaught of bubbles and prepared a ball of dragon energy in her mouth. As soon as Crawdaunt got close enough, she fired it at him.

The blast hit Crawdaunt, but didn't manage to stop him. His crabhammer made contact with Altaria as she took to the skies once more. After the field cleared, the trainers and spectators could see that both Pokémon were exhausted and wouldn't be able to take too much before fainting.

Nando immediately came up with a plan, "Altaria, use sing once more and then dream eater to recover your health."

Max knew that if his Pokémon fell asleep, the battle would be over so he called out his own moves, "Crawdaunt, use blizzard and then night slash!"

Each Pokémon began working on following their trainers' orders. Altaria once again sang her beautiful melody while Crawdaunt summoned a massive blizzard into the sky around Altaria. Neither Pokémon was able to use the second move they were ordered to because Altaria fell out of the sky and Crawdaunt fell asleep.

Once the battlefield had calmed down, Brock took a look around before raising his hand. "Altaria is unable to battle, Crawdaunt is the winner."

Nanda smiled as he recalled his Pokémon, "You did a wonderful job. Now, take a good rest." He then grabbed another pokeball and threw it, "Armaldo, let us battle together once again!"

At those words, a Pokémon that looked like an armored sloth appeared on the battlefield. He appeared to be rather ancient and was gray with yellow lines and red dots on his head.

"Armaldo, finish Crawdaunt with x-scissor," Nando called out.

Obediently, Armaldo crossed his two claws into an x shaped and charged at the sleeping lobster. As he reached his target, Armaldo slashed outwards with his claws, slashing Crawdaunt and finishing him off. After the attack, the Pokémon lay on the ground unconscious.

Brock once again raised his arm, "Crawdaunt is unable to battle, the winner of this battle is Armaldo."

Max recalled his fallen Pokémon and thanked him for his work before selecting another Pokémon and sending it out. "Swellow, I need your help!" He called.

A small blue bird with a white chest and red face appeared in the air just in front of Max. The bird called out a battle cry before quickly flying around the field.

Nando watched the bird and then spoke up, "That is a very fast Swellow you have there. I can tell it has been raised well."

Max nodded, "Thanks, your Pokémon all appear to be quite strong as well."

Nando nodded, "Now, back to the battle. Armaldo, use stone edge."

Immediately, a large stone was summoned in front of the ancient Pokémon and sharpened before being launched at a high speed towards the hovering bird Pokémon.

"Dodge it!" Max called out, "Then use agility and air slash!"

The small bird nimbly avoided the rock and then proceeded to speed up even more before launching a blade of air towards his opponent.

"Armaldo, block the attack with x-scissor and then use rock blast."

Armaldo once again crossed his claws before unleashing a powerful slash attack. This attack intercepted the air slash causing a small explosion to occur. As the explosion covered the field, a rock was formed in front of Armaldo and was then launched towards the last place he had seen the bird.

Max waited for the smoke to clear so he could call out more attacks, but as he waited, a rock came flying out of the smoke towards his Swellow. Too late he realized it and desperately tried to call out, "Swellow! Dodge it!"

Swellow tried to avoid it, but the rock had gotten too close and managed to score a glancing blow on the bird. Swellow called out in pain before losing altitude.

Max watched in worry as his Pokémon lost height. "Swellow, clear the smoke with a wing attack and then use endeavor!"

Swellow obeyed, quickly beating his wings to clear away the remaining smoke. Immediately, he saw Armaldo and flew in with his next attack.

Nando saw Swellow flying in and called out, "Use crush claw to send Swellow into the ground, then use Earthquake!"

However, Swellow easily avoided the claw and slammed into Armaldo. Swellow then quickly flew back into the sky, panting heavily. Armaldo was at the same energy level as Swellow after having been hit by the endeavor attack.

Max looked at his Pokémon and saw that it only had enough energy left for one more attack, "Swellow, charge up and use sky attack!"

Swellow immediately flew up into the air and began glowing white. Nando looked on and decided to use one last attack as well, "Armaldo, use giga impact!"

Armaldo was then surrounded in a purple aura that radiated power. As Swellow flew down towards Armaldo, the rock Pokémon bent his legs and prepared to launch towards the bird. Once the bird was within range, Armaldo gave a full power jump towards the Swellow and the two Pokémon collided.

There was a massive explosion upon impact, sending dust, smoke, and debris in all directions. The two trainers waited to see whose Pokémon would remain standing and claim victory. The audience watched in amazement at the power the Pokémon had shown at the end of the battle. Brock just watched closely so that he could call the match quickly so the Pokémon could get medical care and recover.

As the smoke finally cleared, all who had gathered looked at the field to see two unconscious Pokémon. Brock raised both of his hands, "Both Armaldo and Swellow are unable to battle, the match ends in a draw."

The small group cheered for their friends battle while the trainers recalled their Pokémon into their balls, thanking them for battling so hard.

Nando walked across the field to max and held out his hand, "That was a wonderful battle. Your Pokémon fought with power and beauty. It is a shame it ended in a draw, but should we happen to battle in the tournament, we can use that match to determine the true victor of this battle."

Max smiled and shook Nando's hand, "Thanks Nando. Your Pokémon were really strong and that battle was great. I think I'm finally ready for the tournament to begin so I can show the world how strong I really am."

From behind the group came another voice, "Hey guys, did I miss anything while I was gone?"

The group turned towards the forest and saw Gary walking out of it. Brock smiled at the man, "Well Gary, you just missed a battle between Max and Nando."

Gary looked at him questioningly, "Who's Nando?"

Nando walked over to Gary and offered him his hand, "I am Nando. I am a bard, a trainer, and a coordinator. I travel the world making music with my Pokémon while competing as much as I can. May I ask who you are?"

Gary shook his hand, "My name is Gary Oak. My grandfather is Samuel Oak. Anyways, I'm a Pokémon researcher. I use to be a trainer, but I realized that wasn't my true calling and switched career's."

"I see," said Nando. "As a trainer, how far did you make it?"

Gary thought about it, "I made it into the final 16 in the Silver Conference before losing to my old rival Ash Ketchum. After that, I decided to become a Pokémon researcher like my grandfather."

Nando nodded, "So you too know Ash. It's a real shame he isn't here at this tournament to compete against."

Gary smirked, "Yeah, a real shame Ashey-boy isn't here." When everyone looked at him funny he pretended to look surprised, "Sorry, all this talk about my old rivalry with him seems to have brought a little of my old attitude back, just ignore me."

Brock looked at him questioningly and Gary just smiled in return. Brock nodded and decided to change the subject, "So, Nando, what have you been up to these last few years? It's been a while since I've seen you."

Nando sighed, "I have been travelling the world and competing where I can. I made it to the top 16 in Hoenn and then tried Sinnoh again and made it to the top 8. During competitions, I have yet to win a Grand Festival, but I made it to the finals in Sinnoh a year ago. How about you Brock? How goes being a doctor?"

Brock smiled, "It has been fun. I completed school in record time due to my experiences while traveling around with Ash and friends. Since then, I have been getting called over the place to areas in need of a skilled doctor."

Max then looked at his watch and gasped, "Guys! Look at the time! We need to get dinner now if we want to make it to the opening ceremony on time."

The others all looked at the time and agreed. As a group, they headed to the Pokémon Center cafeteria for some food before they would head off to the main stadium for the opening ceremony.

-The lake in the forest-

Ash sat down on the ground, eating the last of the fruit he had gathered for his dinner. In front of him sat all of his Pokémon eating their dinners as well. As soon as he finished eating, he looked at them and spoke, "Well guys, this is it. The ultimate tournament to show the world what we are made of. You guys have all been with me through thick and thin. Together, we defeated Team Rocket. That might be our biggest accomplishment, but don't forget about all the individual Pokémon we have helped throughout the last several years. We have worked this hard to become the best. As the strongest, we can help those in need as well as make more friends. This tournament is our chance to show the world who the strongest Pokémon are and who the best Pokémon Master is. Now, let's go out there and make our presence known!"

All of his Pokémon cheered heir approval and Ash quickly recalled all of them except Houndoom and Pikachu. Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder while Houndoom stood at his side. As he began walking out of the forest, he looked at Pikachu, "Hey buddy, Brock says that if you keep healing at your current rate and I make it to the end of the tournament, you should be able to take part in the final battle."

Pikachu smiled, "Piki pi! Chu pi Pika!"

Ash grinned and Houndoom let out a happy bark as well, "Yes Pikachu, I know you're excited to battle again. I can't wait either. Still, in order for that to happen, I need to make it that far in the tournament first." He then rubbed Pikachu's head and continued walking towards the main stadium.

Once he stepped out of the forest, he looked at Houndoom, "Houndoom, I know you hate your pokeball, but I can't have you out if you are going to bark and growl at every person you see. In this stadium there's going to be over 1,000 trainers as well as thousands more people in the audience. Not all of the people are going to be good people either. I still can't have you causing any trouble. If you do start causing problems, I will put you in your ball. Is that clear?"

Houndoom gave an irritated growl before nodding his head in acceptance. Ash patted his head, "Good, because I don't want to make you go in your ball."

When they reached the main stadium, Ash looked it over. From the outside, the stadium was massive. It was the largest stadium he had ever seen. The stadium looked like it could hold 100,000 spectators in it. It also appeared to be a modern take on ancient architecture. It was made from high-tech material but had been built in a way that made it appear to be ancient as well. All in all, it was the most impressive structure Ash had ever seen.

After gazing at the stadium for several minutes, Ash made his way to the competitor's entrance to the field. When he walked out, he had to once again catch his breath. The stadium was filled completely with spectators and the field was covered in trainers. The trainers were standing in a grid like formation so as to appear organized and professional. Ash quickly found a spot on the edge of the grid in order to help Houndoom remain cool and so he could remain out of the spotlight as much as possible.

Down the middle of the stadium a path had been cleared and left devoid of trainers. Where the path reached the fans, there were no seats, just stairs that led up to a massive bronze bowl with a life-size Moltres statue above it. The statue appeared to be floating there, but Ash figured there was some mechanical trick providing the illusion.

From his spot on the field, Ash scanned the crowd in search of familiar faces. It took a while, but he eventually spotted Brock, Dawn, May, and Gary on the opposite side of the stadium. As he continued looking around, he caught sight of several different people from his many travels scattered throughout the crowd.

The sheer number of people present was astounding enough, but when that was combined with the sound of all the conversations going on, Ash found it to be incredible. He tried to imagine what it would sound like to have all those people cheering at the same time and found he just couldn't even begin to comprehend the idea.

He then moved his eyes to the trainers gathered on the stadium ground. He found Paul near the edge on the side to Ash's right. He then found Misty and Max standing next to each other near the middle of the stadium. They appeared to be talking to someone and when Ash got a closer look, he realized it was Nando.

Ash smiled at the thought of getting to fight Nando again. He had never met another person who fought quite like him. Nando was a one of a kind sort of battler and Ash enjoyed the challenge involved.

As he continued looking at the trainers, he was surprised at how many of them he knew. He saw Elite 4 members and champions such as Bruno, Lorelei, Lance, Koga, Will, Sydney, Drake, Phoebe, Aaron, Flint, Bertha, Lucian, Cynthia, Wallace, and even Stephen. He also saw many gym leaders present. Too many to even name.

Eventually, his gaze fell upon a blue-haired man with a red cape covering his entire body. Ash smiled when he caught sight of the man and Pikachu grinned as well. Ash looked at Pikachu, "I really hope I get to battle him. I know how strong he is and I want to show the world that not even the great Tobias can defeat me anymore. He might have beaten us back in Sinnoh, but this time it's going to be different."

Pikachu grinned and let some sparks fly from his cheeks. Houndoom simply looked at the man and grinned back at his trainer. Tobias seemed to notice the gazes Ash and his Pokémon were sending him because he looked up at Ash. For a few seconds, Tobias just watched him, but eventually he walked over.

Once Tobias got close enough, he spoke up, "It's been a while young man. After the Sinnoh league, you just disappeared. I had finally found somebody who had the potential to rival me and then he just vanished. I was disappointed. However, seeing you here gives me reason to believe this competition might be a bit of fun after all."

Ash grinned at him, "So you recognized me? Good job, not even my friends recognized me on sight and currently only three of them know who I am. I don't think it will be a problem, but do you mind keeping my identity a secret?"

Tobias smiled, "Really? How could they not recognize that look in your eyes? Your appearance might have changed and your Pikachu might have gained an ugly scar, but you are the only person I have ever met with such fighting spirit. Good luck in the competition Ash, and hopefully we can meet up in it and have another wonderful battle."

"Oh, if we meet up, I can assure you it will be a wonderful battle. I also promise you that it won't end the same way this time."

Tobias simply walked back to his spot on the field and Ash went back to watching the contestants as they waited for the ceremony to begin.

Occasionally, the announcer would say something about the torch runner, but Ash mostly tuned it out. He had been to enough of these opening ceremonies to more or less know what to expect. After a few more minutes though, the crowd got silent and Ash figured he should start paying attention.

He turned his head towards the entrance the torch runner would use and waited. About a minute later, an athletic looking woman entered the stadium at a jog. The announcer spoke up, "Ladies and gentlemen!" The announcer exclaimed, "Samantha has entered the stadium with the Flame of Moltres!" At that, the crowd erupted into cheers as Samantha walked the flame to the base of the stairs that led to the massive torch bowl.

At the base of the stairs stood a short man with white hair. He looked kind of like Santa, except he was wearing a baseball cap on backwards. He reached out towards the young lady who had run the torch through the last leg of its journey and took the torch from her. Once the exchange was completed, the crowd cheered once more.

Now that Ash could hear the crowd at full volume, he wanted more than anything to hear that roar be because of him. He began anticipating the tournament more than ever and it took all of his willpower to not join in with the cheering. He settled instead for more dignified clapping and a smile.

The announcer spoke up once more, "The Flame of Moltres has been handed over to Charles Goodshow, the president of the Pokémon League and organizer of this wonderful tournament!" The crowd erupted again as the announcer continued, "Mr. Goodshow is now walking the Flame of Moltres up to the torch so that we can officially begin the tournament!"

As the announcer spoke, Mr. Goodshow slowly made his way up the steps until he was standing directly in front of the massive torch. With a dramatic bow and spin, he brought the Flame of Moltres into contact with the massive torch and set it alight. As the torch lit up, the crowd gave one final cheer before quieting down again.

Mr. Goodshow was then joined on the platform by several prominent figures from Pokémon society. There were the individual directors of each Pokémon league as well as Scott, president of the Battle Frontier.

Mr. Goodshow walked up to the front of the platform and brought out a microphone that had been hidden. He raised it up and spoke, "Welcome everybody to the first ever Pokémon World Championship!" He began. The crowd cheered for a little bit before settling down.

Mr. Goodshow smiled at them all, "The support we have had for this tournament has been astounding, but since I know you didn't all come here to listen to me speak, I will keep things brief. However, before I begin, my good friend Scott says he has an announcement to make that should make this tournament even more exciting. So, without further ado, say hello to Scott!"

The crowd cheered as Scott stepped up. He took the microphone from Mr. Goodshow and spoke, "I came here for the battles, so I'm going to make this brief. Many of you know about the Battle Frontier that I started several years back. Over the years, it has gained popularity and grown. It is famous for the seven Battle Brains that test trainers in many different aspects of Pokémon battling. Well, today I am here to say that there will no longer be seven Battle Brains."

Scott gave a dramatic pause and waited for people to settle down after the first part of his announcement. After a minute, he continued, "After this tournament ends, there will be an eighth Battle Brain in the Frontier. I will not tell you who the new brain is until the tournament ends, so just know that any trainer in this event could possibly be the newest Battle Brain."

As the crowd cheered the news, Ash just smirked. He knew who the new brain was and he wasn't going to tell anyone. At least not yet he wasn't. Scott then handed the microphone back to the president and stepped back.

Mr. Goodshow gave a smile to the audience and an inquisitive glance to all the trainers gathered on the field as if he was trying to figure out which one of them was the new Battle Brain. After a few seconds, he raised his head again and spoke, "Well, that certainly is some exciting news Scott had for us and I'm sure it will make this tournament that much more exciting. Now, back to the opening ceremonies."

He then spread his arms and gestured to all the trainers on the field before talking again. "You all are the greatest trainers the world has to offer. This tournament was set up to find the best of the best and so only those who had had much success in battle were invited to join. With all of you high quality trainers, we are sure to see many high quality battles until only one trainer remains. The last trainer standing will earn the title of World's Greatest Pokémon Master!"

At that, the trainers gathered on the field cheered along with the crowd. Once the noise died down, the president continued, "That title will give you the respect of all those you encounter as well as cement your place in history. Once you get the title, it is yours to keep for four years. In four years, you will have to defend your title in this tournament once again.

"Now, the first stage of the tournament starts tomorrow, so I recommend you all get some sleep so that you can be prepared for your battles tomorrow! Congratulations to you all and I wish you the best of luck!"

With that, the crowd gave its final cheer of the night before beginning to disperse. As the crowd dispersed, so too did the trainers. Ash made his way out of the stadium as quickly as he could so he wouldn't get caught up in traffic. As soon as he was free, he headed back out into the forest. He knew he wouldn't be able to get any sleep that night, so he decided to relax in nature one last time before the tournament truly began.

-Pokémon Center-

Gathered into one room sat a group of eight people. They sat together and talked about the next day's events.

Brock turned to Max and spoke, "So Max, are you ready for your first battle tomorrow?"

Max grinned, "I'm ready, but I don't think I'm going to be able to sleep tonight. I checked the schedule though and my battle is at 9:30 in arena 7. My opponent is some guy named Timothy. How about you Misty, are you ready?"

Misty nodded, "Yep. I'm certainly ready. I even got a lucky draw because I'm in arena 4, which is a water field. My opponent is some guy named Devin. What about you Anabel, you ready to show the world the power of a Frontier Brain?"

Anabel sighed, "I suppose. I've never really competed in a tournament though. I became a Frontier Brain before I ever had to, so this is a new experience for me. The fact that it just so happens to be the largest tournament in history just makes it even more intimidating."

May spoke up, "Don't worry about it. Once you get out there, the adrenaline from battle will block out the crowd and the pressure. You'll do fine."

Anabel smiled, "Thanks May." She then looked around before speaking again, "Guys, I think I'm going to go for a walk to try and clear my head. I'll be back later."

The others nodded and Anabel walked out of the room. After talking for another half hour, the group went to their individual rooms to try and get some rest before the big day.

-The lake in the forest-

Ash lay down on his back and looked up at the stars. Pikachu was resting on his stomach while Houndoom lay by his side. As he relaxed, he tried to prepare himself for the next day and the rest of the tournament to follow.

He looked down at the yellow mouse on his stomach, "Hey Pikachu, are you ready for the tournament?"

Pikachu raised his head and looked at his trainer, "Pika pi chu pikachu," he said.

Ash smiled, "I know you aren't going to battle. At least not at the beginning, but still, I was just curious." He then turned to Houndoom, "How about you, are you ready to start your battles tomorrow?"

Houndoom looked at his trainer and released some smoke from his nostrils. He then gave his head a quick nod before lying back down.

Ash sighed as he went back to looking at the stars, "I wish I could be as relaxed as you guys are. For some reason though, whenever I'm in a tournament I can't relax until I get my first win."

He sighed and the group lapsed into silence. After a while, Ash noticed that Pikachu and Houndoom were both asleep. He grinned at the sight and wished he could join them in sleep. As he thought about this though, he heard footsteps approaching.

Surprised, he sat up quickly, knocking Pikachu to the ground and waking up Houndoom. Ash quickly turned around and saw Anabel walk out of the forest and into the clearing.

She smiled apologetically at Ash, "Sorry about disturbing you. I figured you were asleep at the center and didn't realize you were out here."

Ash shrugged, "Eh, I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep so I came out here to relax. How about you, why are you out here?"

Anabel sighed before sitting down next to Ash, "I couldn't sleep and the pressure was beginning to overwhelm me. I needed to clear my head."

Ash smiled, "Well, this is a good place to do that. As for the pressure, don't worry about it. Once you get on the field, all the distractions go away."

Anabel nodded, "That's what May said, but I'm still worried. I mean, what if the distractions don't go away? What if the pressure gets to me and I freak out? What happens then?"

Ash sighed, "Well, actually, the pressure doesn't really go away on the field. It takes a while for that to become a natural thing. What helped me when I was first doing tournaments and competing was having friends in the stands cheering for me. If I felt like I couldn't handle it, I would look at the people supporting me and my confidence would come back immediately. Also, once you get into the battle, it becomes easier to focus. The hardest part is getting focused, but once you achieve focus, it stays with you."

Anabel sighed, "That sounds good, except I don't really have a lot of close friends other that my Pokémon. So I won't have anyone in the stands supporting me like that."

Ash laughed, "Sure you have friends. You've been hanging out with Brock and that group and they all seem like great people. I'm sure they would support you."

Anabel looked at Ash, "How about you Five, will you support me as well?"

Ash thought about it, "I will if I can. But I don't know when I battle, so I might not be able to."

That made Anabel laugh, "You are the most clueless guy ever. You come here without knowing the rules of the tournament and now you don't know when you battle? What would you do without me here?"

Ash laughed, "I don't know, but I'm glad you've been helping me out. Do you know when I battle?"

Anabel nodded, "Yeah, you battle tomorrow at 11:30 in arena 8. Arena 8 is an earth field. I battle at 1:30 in arena 3 which is also an earth field."

Ash thought about that before speaking up, "I'll tell you what Anabel, if you come to my battle and support me, I will go to yours and support you. Deal?"

Anabel gave Ash a warm smile, "Deal. Thanks Five, talking to you has really helped to clear my head. Still, I think that like you, I won't be getting any sleep tonight. Do you think you could tell me another story about one of your adventures?"

Ash turned his head to look at Anabel before answering, "I told you a story last time we talked, I think this time it's your turn to tell me a story."

"That may be true, but after our last talk, you did your best to avoid all of us for the rest of the week. The only person who had contact with you was Brock. I say that you owe me a story for just disappearing like that. Speaking of which, why have you been avoiding us all?"

Ash gulped, "Fine, I will tell you another story. As for why I've been avoiding you all, I haven't. My training has been rather intense. That has led to me going to sleep early. Since I eat out here in the forest, I was never going to be having meals with you guys anyways."

Anabel looked at Ash funny, "Still, it wouldn't have hurt you to say hi to us every now and then. I think you have spent plenty of time in the wilderness. Now you need to get your social skills back."

At that comment, Pikachu began laughing and Houndoom let out a snort. Ash glared at his Pokémon. "Pikachu, it's not that funny. And Houndoom, you're hardly one to talk about social skills. I seem to recall having to spend most of my effort during the opening ceremonies preventing you from attacking every person that looked at me."

Anabel smiled, "You seem to have quite the friendly relationship with your Pokémon. It's really fun watching you all interact with each other. Now for your story, can you tell me about how you met Houndoom? You told me about Eevee, but never Houndoom."

Ash sighed, "Well, the story about how I met Houndoom is not fun. At all. It really is a sad story with a sad ending. Houndoom was the first Pokémon I caught on my current journey and at the beginning of my current journey some bad things happened."

Ash then looked at Pikachu and Houndoom, "Do you guys want me to tell her this story? It involves both of you, so if you don't want me to tell then I won't."

Anabel watched as the two Pokémon contemplated letting her hear this story. After hearing about how bad the story might be, she was wondering whether she actually wanted to hear it or not. The story with Eevee hadn't been good, but this one sounded like it might actually be worse.

After several minutes of contemplation, both Pokémon gave their approval to tell the story. Ash nodded, "Well, if you still want to hear the story, then I guess I can tell you."

Anabel thought about it, "Yeah. I want to hear the story. It might not be pretty, but I can tell the story still troubles you and it might help if you let someone know what happened."

Ash smiled at Anabel, "Yeah, it does still bother me. It probably always will as well. Anyways, here goes."

-3 years ago. Viridian Forest-

A young teenage boy was walking through the forest. He had a Pikachu on his shoulder, a baseball cap on his head, and a smile on his face. He had been travelling for several weeks and was busy exploring the depths of the forest. Since he had no timeline to stick to, he had no need to hurry through the forest like he had the previous time's he had been here.

As he was exploring, he heard a small cry come from behind him. He turned around quickly and saw a Houndour in the brush staring at him. The boy smiled at the small Pokémon and spoke, "Hey there, my name is Ash. What are you doing out here alone? Don't you have a family to be with?"

The little Pokémon bared his teeth at Ash and then barked and growled. Ash looked at the scene in confusion, "Do you want to battle me? Is that it?"

Ash's Pikachu then jumped onto the ground and faced the Houndour. The little Pokémon tried to act brave and shot a small stream of fire at Pikachu. Before Pikachu could retaliate though, Ash stopped him. "Pikachu, don't attack him. Houndour is just scared. I don't know why he's attacking us when he's scared, but something is wrong. Let's try to help him out. Okay?"

Pikachu nodded and tried to converse with the scared little Pokémon. After talking for a few minutes, Pikachu hadn't really learned anything. He turned and looked at Ash questioningly. Ash sighed, "Well if he won't talk to you, I don't know what to do to help him."

Just then, the small group heard the sound of many people approaching. Houndour immediately whimpered and ran into the underbrush to hide. Ash wondered what was scaring the Pokémon so badly when a large group appeared in front of him.

The group had about 20 people in it. The majority of them were dressed all in black with a red R on the chest. Three of the people though, were dressed in fancier clothes.

Ash groaned when he saw them. "Team Rocket. What are you guys doing this time? What do you want?"

One of the fancier dressed members stepped forward. It was a lady with long red hair, black pants, and a white, black, and gray shirt on. "Ash Ketchum I presume?" Ash didn't answer but Pikachu shot electricity from his cheeks and glared at the people. The lady continued, "The boss grew tired of the idiots who had been sent to capture your Pikachu. We have been sent in their place. Now, hand over Pikachu and no one will get hurt. If you resist, we will fight you. We have you outnumbered by quite a bit. There are 20 grunts as well as three admins. If you resist, we will simply take you down in battle and take Pikachu."

Ash glared at them all, "You will never get Pikachu!" He exclaimed. "You guys have been trying to take him for years and never succeeded. This time won't be any different. I will do everything in my power to make sure you never get Pikachu, even if it kills me!"

The redhead sighed, "Fine. Be that way. Golem, I choose you. Destroy this half-pint and take his Pikachu." With that, she threw out a pokeball and a Golem appeared.

Before she could give any commands though, Ash did, "Pikachu, use iron tail. Electricity might not affect Golem, but iron tail will be super effective."

Pikachu nodded and his tail began glowing white. He then ran towards Golem and slammed into him with his tail full-force. A few seconds later, the Golem fell to the ground unconscious.

The admin growled, "Everybody, release your Pokémon and take out that damned Pikachu and obnoxious brat!"

At the admins command, all of the Team Rocket members released all of their Pokémon. In total, Ash and Pikachu were now facing about 70 Pokémon.

Ash looked at the sight and gulped, "Hey Pikachu, you ready? I think these guys want to fight."

Pikachu nodded, "Pika pi. Chu pika pi pikachu pi pi."

Ash nodded, "Don't worry buddy, they will never take you from me. I promise."

For the next half hour, a massive battle took place between Team Rocket and Pikachu. When it finally ended, none of the Pokémon were capable of battling any longer. Ash was exhausted as well as he had spent the duration of the battle watching Pikachu's back and blocking attacks for him.

The members of Team Rocket though were still full of energy. The redheaded admin stepped up again, "Now, it's obvious you and your precious Pikachu can no longer battle. As impressive as that little show was, it took all the energy out of you. I can see why the boss wants your Pikachu and now I can fulfill my obligation and bring it to him."

She then walked over to Pikachu, but Ash beat her to him. He grabbed Pikachu and surrounded him in a hug, preventing anyone from being able to reach Pikachu without prying Ash off of him.

Ash glared at the Team Rocket members, "If you want Pikachu, you're going to have to pry him from my dead hands."

The admin laughed, "Ash, you are in no position to say things like that. Come on now, we won so hand us our prize."

When Ash still refused to hand Pikachu over, the admin began kicking and beating Ash, trying to get him to release the Pokémon. After enduring the beating for nearly ten minutes, the admin gave up. "Fine, if you really want to die for your pathetic Pokémon, be my guest."

She then pulled out a knife and walked over to Ash. As she brought the knife down on him though, something happened. Pikachu wriggled his way free of Ash's grip and intercepted the knife with his body.

Ash screamed as he saw his best friend take the knife. Pikachu then fell over on the ground. The admin glared at the Pokémon and spat on him, "Pathetic. That crippled Pokémon will never be good enough for the boss. Come on guys, we're heading back."

Before she left though, she delivered one final kick to the back of Ash's head, knocking him out.

Unbeknownst to all those involved, a young Houndour watched in amazement as this human boy did everything in his power to save his beloved friend. The young Houndour hated humans ever since Team Rocket had taken his parents from him. He tried to take his anger out on this young boy, but after seeing him stand up to the people who had taken his own parents, the Houndour decided he wanted to help save the boy and his Pikachu.

As quickly as he could, the young puppy ran towards the only Pokémon Center he knew about. As soon as he reached it, he began barking at the door, trying to get the nurse's attention.

Almost immediately, the nurse appeared and looked down at him, "What is it? Is something wrong?"

Houndour just continued barking and tried to get the nurse to follow him. The nurse nodded that she understood and followed the Houndour as he led her to the fallen boy and his Pikachu.

The nurse saw the mess and gasped, "Oh my gods," she exclaimed, "What happened here? That Pikachu needs immediate medical attention and the boy needs help as well. Don't worry Houndour, I promise I will save them."

The nurse then bent down and picked up the Pikachu. She sprinted back to the center as fast as she could so she could begin surgery on the small mouse immediately. As soon as she arrived, she sent two of the trainers at the center with Houndour to bring the young boy to the center as well.

Two days later, the boy woke up. He looked around his room and saw a Houndour sitting at his bedside. He looked questioningly at the Pokémon, "You're the Houndour I met in the forest, aren't you?" The Houndour nodded his head.

Ash then tried to remember what had happened to him. As soon as he did remember, he began freaking out. He ran out of his room and crashed right into Nurse Joy.

As the nurse stood up Ash screamed, "Nurse Joy, where's Pikachu, is he alright?"

The nurse smiled at the boy, "Yes, your Pikachu is alive. He is recovering from surgery and is healing over in his own room. Your Houndour led me to you guys and saved your lives."

Ash looked at her questioningly, "I don't have a Houndour. Do you mean the Houndour that was sleeping by my bed when I woke up?"

The nurse nodded, "Yes. Even if he isn't yours, he must like you a lot. He freaks out around people except for you and me. No one else can even approach him. Anyways, it's good to see you up again. Do you want to see your Pikachu?"

Ash nodded and followed the nurse to where Pikachu was asleep with a bandaged side. Ash let out a sigh of relief to see that his best friend was still alive, "Thank goodness you're okay Pikachu. I don't know what I would do without you."

Ash then turned to face the nurse, "Nurse Joy, how long will it take Pikachu to heal? How bad was his injury?"

The nurse looked at Ash with a frown, "I'm sorry to say this, but Pikachu may never fully heal. If he does manage to though, it will take several years. It's a small miracle he even survived. Now, you must tell me what happened."

Ash sighed and then recounted the events to the nurse. When he was done the nurse looked beyond livid, "THOSE ASSHOLES! I WILL NEVER FORGIVE TEAM ROCKET! GAAHHHHH!"

Ash watched in slight fear as the normally peaceful and friendly Nurse Joy spent five minutes cursing Team Rocket. Ash even learned a few new words from the scene.

When the nurse finally calmed down, she looked at Ash sheepishly, "I'm sorry about that, it's just, what Team Rocket does and did to you is absolutely horrible. I just can't stand them."

Ash nodded, "I know what you mean. I've helped stop Team Rocket's plans before and they have always been after my Pikachu. I can't stand them either. This time though, they went too far. This is beyond unforgivable and I vow that I will stop them once and for all in order to prevent situations like this from ever happening again."

For the next week, Pikachu was forced to stay at the Pokémon Center and Ash stayed by his side the entire time. Once Pikachu was well enough to travel, Ash decided he would leave and then begin training to take down Team Rocket.

As he left the Pokémon Center, Nurse Joy wished him luck on his journey. Once he had gotten back into the forest, he looked around and saw a Houndour at his side.

Ash smiled at the young Pokémon, "Do you want to go with me on my quest to destroy Team Rocket?"

The Pokémon looked at Ash and barked an affirmative. Ash smiled, "Well, if you want to come with me, you have to let me catch you first. You ready?"

Houndour nodded as Ash pulled out an empty pokeball. He held it down at Houndour's level and waited for Houndour to let himself be caught. After a few more seconds, Houndour nudged the button in the center of the ball with his nose. A bright light engulfed him as he was sent into the pokeball.

As soon as the pokeball signaled the catch, the ball opened itself up and Houndour stood by Ash's side once more. Ash looked at the Pokémon, "So, I take it you don't like being in the pokeball?"

Houndour nodded and Ash laughed, "Okay then, I guess you can just walk alongside us on our journey. Now, let's go."

And just like that, Ash caught a Houndour and began his journey to destroy Team Rocket.

-Present day at the lake-

As Ash told his story, Anabel listened in horror as the events unfolded. When he finally finished, she wasn't really sure what to say. She couldn't think of any way to express how she felt about the events that had taken place. All she knew was that she felt awful for Five and his Pikachu. She also felt bad for Houndoom who had lost his parents to Team Rocket as well.

After a few minutes of silence, she finally spoke up, "You were right, that is a terrible story. I'm at a loss for words on how to react to that. I feel really bad for you and I'm sorry that a good person like you had to suffer through that."

Ash smiled, "Well, one thing I have learned about life is that shit happens. What matters aren't the bad things that happen to you, but how you respond to those bad things and turn them into a positive. Although I'm not glad that it happened, if I had reacted poorly, things would be much worse right now. I might not even be alive."

Anabel smiled, "That's a good way to look at it. So did you succeed in destroying Team Rocket then?"

Without thinking Ash nodded, "Yeah. It took me two years but I did manage to succeed. With the help of Houndoom and my other Pokémon we put an end to them and their evil ways for good."

After he said that, he realized what he said and put a hand to his mouth. At about that time Anabel seemed to realize the significance of what he had said as well. She gasped, "No way! But if you defeated Team Rocket, then that means that you're- you're-"

Ash sighed, "Yeah. You figured it out. I'm the new Frontier Brain. I completely forgot that Scott had probably told you guys that I had defeated Team Rocket. I'm so used to the fact that no one knows that I did that I just let it slip out."

Anabel laughed, "Well don't worry, I won't tell anyone. I know Scott wants to keep it a secret for now so you have nothing to worry about. Also, congratulations on earning the prestigious title of Frontier Brain."

Ash smiled, "Thanks. I guess this makes you my co-worker, doesn't it?"

Anabel nodded, "Yes it does. Now all I need is your name and we're good to go."

Ash sighed, he knew he shouldn't tell her, but part of him really wanted her to know who he was. After wrestling with the idea for a few minutes he asked her a question, "Is it really that hard to figure out who I am? Paul figured it out pretty quickly. Gary got it as well. Tobias figured out who I was in a single glance. Brock knows who I am because I told him part of the story about Pikachu's injury. Can you really not figure it out?"

As ash was talking, Anabel gasped, "So it really is you? I had thought you acted a lot like Ash, but you're really back?" Anabel was practically squealing in excitement.

Ash just looked at her and nodded with a smile on his face, "Yup. It really is me. I've been gone for three years but I am back now. How have you been Anabel?"

Anabel immediately gave Ash a huge hug, "Oh my god, I have missed you so much, you don't even know!" She exclaimed.

Ash looked at her, "Really? I didn't actually know you that well when we first met. I mean, we knew each other for like two days. Did you really miss me that much?"

Anabel looked at Ash funny, "Are you really that bad at sensing emotions still? Remember when we first met?"

Ash thought back on and remembered, "Oh yeah. You tried to get me to read your emotions. At the time, I couldn't. Well, if you missed me as much as you're claiming, I think I have a pretty good guess as to what you were feeling back then."

Anabel smiled, "Well, it would seem you aren't as clueless as you used to be. Anyways, I'm feeling a lot more relaxed now, so I think I'm going to go and try to get some sleep. I'll see you tomorrow, and don't forget to support me at my battle, okay?"

Ash grinned, "Of course, as long as you go to my battle. Don't forget to keep my identity a secret though. I'll tell everyone else who I am soon enough."

Anabel nodded once more before heading back to the Pokémon Center for the night.

When Ash looked down, he saw Pikachu rubbing his scar. Ash smiled at him, "Hey Pikachu, thanks for taking the knife for me. I wish you hadn't because it pains me to see you with the scar, but I'm glad that we're both alive and still have each other."

Pikachu smiled up at his trainer, "Chu pika," he said.

Ash nodded. He then turned to Houndoom, "Thanks again for saving Pikachu's life back in the forest. I owe you everything for that."

Houndoom just nodded his head and went back to sleep.

As Ash looked back up the stars, he heard footsteps behind him. He looked around and to his surprise he saw Paul.

Paul smirked at him, "Have a nice date with you girlfriend?"

Ash groaned, "Really Paul? You find me out here in the middle of the night and that's all you say? Also, she's just a friend."

Paul laughed, "Sure she is. I heard most of that conversation. I was walking by and heard someone talking about viridian forest. I stopped to listen and heard some interesting things."

Ash sighed, "Really Paul? You were walking by and decided to eavesdrop on a private conversation? What do you want anyways?"

"Well, I just came to tell you that you don't stand a chance against me in this tournament. My Pokémon won't be tired from training when we battle you this time. Also, if you lose to anyone before I beat you I won't ever forgive you."

Ash laughed, "As much as you've changed since the Sinnoh league, you're still the same guy you always were. It's nice seeing you again Paul. Good luck in the tournament. Now, I'm going to try and get some sleep if you don't mind."

Paul smirked, "Of course. Sleep well and don't lose." With that, Paul walked back through the forest to the Pokémon Center.

As Ash lay on the ground in the forest, he looked down at Pikachu, "You know what buddy? I think I might actually be able to get some sleep tonight. Sleep well Pikachu and I'll see you in the morning."

**Chapter 4 is now complete**

**Tell me what you think. There are parts of this chapter I don't really like, at the same time, there are also several parts that I'm rather proud of. I'd like to know what you guys think.**

**Let me get this out of the way, this story will be abilityshipping. It will still take time for the relationship to start, but that is where this is headed. On the other hand, that's only a part of the plot, there is a lot more to the story then just Ash falling in love. **

**The main part of this story is the tournament, but there will also be large chunks of flashbacks to Ash's Journey to defeat Team Rocket. The whole fight with them starts with Pikachu's injury and will continue being told as the story progresses. By the end of the story, you should have the full story of Ash's two-year struggle with Team Rocket.**

**Also, just so you guys know, I will try to have at least one real Pokémon battle in each chapter. Just to keep them going. Tell me how I'm doing at writing them. Writing action stuff has never been one of my strengths, so any feedback on it would be helpful**

**Also, I have all of Ash's opponents decided for the tournament. I will write all of his battles out. If you want me to write other people's battles as well, let me know whose battles you want me to write.**

**I do my best to take your suggestions and requests seriously, so if there is anything in particular you want to see, tell me and I will do my best to put it in. **

**Anyways, thanks for reading and be sure to leave a review or send me a PM if you have anything to tell me.**

_**I actually didn't change anything. A few spelling/grammar things, but I thought I would begin running into things I wanted to change here. **_

_**I think part of the problem is that I'm not sure how much I should change. Part of me is tempted to just rewrite this entire story, making bigger changes than I'm currently planning to. Well, once I finish all these edits, I'll leave the choice to you guys as to whether or not I should just rewrite everything.**_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	5. Chapter 5

_**For those who didn't read my last AN, I'm contemplating rewriting the whole story. I could possibly throw in Unova stuff or I could just do a rewrite of what I already have. I'll leave it up to you guys, so keep that in mind as you read.**_

**Chapter 5**

**So, funny story, sometimes when I type Anabel's name, I accidently put a 't' at the end of it. That makes it Anabelt. Now I can't get the image of Ash falling in love with a belt out of my mind. For some reason, I can just imagine the young Ash laying down on his adventures cuddled up with a belt and then kissing it. It's a really funny image. Anyways, now that that's out of the way, we can move on.**

**Okay, well, I am amazed by my progress. The fact that I have been typing over 10,000 words a day amazes me. I'm typing that much and still have the time to get things done that need doing. I don't know how long I can keep this up for, but as long as it lasts I'm going to be going with it.**

**I still have the poll up for a potential future story if you want to provide your input.**

**Anyways, onto the story.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon (true story).**

-In the forest by the lake-

Ash woke up in the morning as he felt something fall off of his stomach. He looked down to see Houndoom laughing with Pikachu glaring at him. Ash quickly realized that Houndoom had decided to roll Pikachu off of his stomach for fun.

Ash sighed, "Houndoom, was that really necessary?"

Houndoom just laughed and shot a small jet of flame at Ash. Ash immediately jumped up and put out the small fire on his shirt. He then glared at Houndoom who simply went and looked at the sun. Ash looked at is as well and realized that he had been asleep longer than he had planned. He quickly picked Pikachu up and walked out of the forest.

As he reached the practice fields by the Pokémon Center, he saw a group of familiar faces walk out of it. He smiled at them and walked over, "Hey guys, good morning. You ready for your battles today?"

The group stopped and looked at him before Max answered, "Hey Five, it's been a while since we last saw you, how have you been doing? And yeah, I'm ready for my battle. In fact, that's where we're headed right now. I battle at 9:30 in arena 7 on a grass field. Do you want to join us?"

Ash shrugged, "I guess I could do that. I woke up late and was planning to eat breakfast, but I suppose that can wait until after your battle."

Max smiled, "Cool! Then after my battle you can give me tips and advice on how to do better."

"Well, maybe," said Ash. "I'm not sure though. The main thing about battling is communication with your Pokémon and keeping calm and focused. As long as you can do that, all that's left is to train for power and work on strategies of your own to use."

Max nodded, "Still, any advice helps."

Ash nodded, "I suppose. I guess I can give you advice, but I have to be careful or else you'll be beating me when we battle."

He then heard Brock speak up, "Hey Five, good morning. How's your Pikachu doing?"

Ash looked at the yellow mouse on his shoulder and shrugged, "He's doing better. Thanks to you of course. You really are a great doctor."

Brock nodded his thanks, "Still, don't go too hard on the training yet. If you do you could just reaggravate the injury."

Ash nodded, "Don't worry, I won't push him." Ash then turned to everyone else, "So, did you all sleep well in preparation for your battles today?"

All of the battlers nodded their heads while Paul smirked, "How about you Five, did you sleep well after your little date last night?"

Ash blushed as everyone looked at him. Ash noticed that Anabel had a faint blush as well and wasn't looking at anyone. Ash sighed, "Shut up Paul. That's really none of your business."

May then spoke up with a sad tone, "You had a date last night?"

Ash sighed, "No. I couldn't sleep and another competitor who was having difficulty sleeping ran into me. We talked for a while before going our separate ways for the night. Paul decided to eavesdrop on the conversation and insists on bugging me about it."

Dawn smacked Paul on the head, "Paul! It's not polite to eavesdrop. Keep your nose out of other people's business."

Paul groaned, "Fine, I'll try to stop eavesdropping on people. The only reason I listened to the conversation though is because Five was telling an incredibly interesting story."

Now the attention was back on Ash. He looked around as he saw people looking at him expectantly, "What? It's not a story I like to tell. Maybe some other time I will tell you guys, but it's hardly something you would want to hear right before a battle."

Misty then spoke up, "Okay, so I understand you don't want to tell us the story, but what was the story about?"

Ash sighed, "It was about how I met Houndoom and how Pikachu got his scar. Now, you guys should start focusing on your battles. These might just be preliminaries, but none of these people are pushovers."

After successfully changing the subject away from himself, Ash sent a glare at Paul who simply smirked in return. He then moved his gaze to Anabel and saw her looking at him before she quickly moved her gaze. Ash felt a blush rising to his cheeks so he tried to listen back into the conversation before anyone noticed.

"Don't worry, I know my opponents going to be skilled, but I'm telling you that I can take him. Timothy only made it to the top 16 in the Silver Conference, and even that was three years ago. I'm pretty sure I can take him."

"Well, has he competed in any tournaments since then, because if he hasn't, it's entirely possible he has been away training and gotten much stronger," Brock advised him.

Max shook his head, "No, he made top 32 in Sinnoh last year and two years ago he didn't make it past qualifying. He has skill, but not enough to take me down."

Gary then decided to speak up, "Still, he could surprise you. You never want to count anyone out until after you have beaten them."

Max nodded his head, "Guys, I know all this. Stop pestering me about it. I'm going to go battle, and I'm going to win. I don't care who my opponent is or how strong they are. Now leave me alone. Why don't you bug Misty about her match? Or maybe Anabel or Five?"

"Because," said Misty, "We all have more experience than you so we don't need to be bothered. Also, since it's your battle we're going to see right now, we want to make sure you're ready for it. No need to get so snappy about it."

Max sighed, "Fine. I guess that's a good enough reason. Anyways, we're here, so I'm going to go check in while you guys go get seats."

As Max went to go check in, the rest of the group went into the stadium to get seats. Because they are friends of one of the battlers, they had seats already reserved for them near the center of the arena near the ground. This provided them a good view of the field and battle.

The current arena was a lot smaller than the main one where the opening ceremony was held. The main arena, however, was not going to be used until only 16 trainers remained. At that point, all battles would take place in it. The arena they were currently in had seating for maybe 10,000 people at most but was still pretty full.

With 10 arenas' that seated 10,000 each, that provided 1000,000 seats, the same amount as could fit in the main arena. At least, that was the goal.

As the group took their seats, Ash wound up sitting next to Anabel and Brock. Ash turned to Anabel, "Hey, did you sleep well once you got back to the Pokémon Center?"

Anabel turned to Ash and nodded, "Yeah. Talking with you really helped me to calm down and clear my head. Although I think part of that was the story you told me. Compared to what you and Pikachu went through, this tournament's pressure really isn't that bad."

Ash laughed, "You know, I never thought about it that way, but now that you mention, I guess that is true."

Brock then spoke up, "So it was Anabel who you ran into last night? And you told her the whole story about what happened to Pikachu? You never even told me the whole story about that incident."

Ash smiled sheepishly, "Sorry Brock, but it is true that I don't like telling the story. Also, nighttime is a good time to talk to me if you want to hear me reminisce about my past adventures. Also, Pikachu and Houndoom both told me I should tell her. I can't really tell the story without their permission."

Brock sighed, "Okay, but you better tell me eventually. It might not be a happy story, but I do feel like I have a right to know."

Ash nodded, "Don't worry, I'll tell you. I promise. Now, let's watch this battle that looks like it's about to start."

And watch they did. The battle took about 20 minutes and Max managed to pull off a win. He used his Grovyle, Gardevoir, and Vigoroth in battle to defeat Timothy's Steelix, Hypno, and Empoleon. In the end it had come down to Grovyle and Empoleon, but Grovyle's leaf blade managed to take down its opponent.

Once the battle ended, the group walked out of the arena to meet up with Max once more and congratulate him in his victory.

"Hey guys," Max called out, "Did you see me win that match? He put up a good fight, but he didn't stand a chance against me!"

Brock grinned, "You did a good job Max, but it was a close battle that could have gone either way in the end. You were lucky that your Grovyle had a little more energy left than Empoleon did. Regardless of how it happened though, congratulations on the win."

Max sighed, "I know, he was actually a really good trainer. I shouldn't have been surprised by that since this is a competition for the best trainer in the world, but still, he was better than I had expected."

Gary nodded his head, "You got that right, these are indeed the best trainers around. Winning any of these battles is something to feel proud about; it means that you really are a strong trainer."

Max nodded before turning to Ash, "So, Five, what did you think of my battle? Do you have any suggestions for future battles?"

Ash laughed, "Not really. All you need is more experience. You have the capabilities of a skilled trainer, but it takes you a little too long to come up with and execute your strategies. That is a problem that can only be fixed through experience though, so good job with your battle and good luck in the future."

Max nodded his head, "Thanks. Hey, when's your battle? I want to watch it and see how well you fight in a longer battle."

Ash laughed, "My battle is at 11:30 in arena 8. If you want to watch it, feel free. How about you Misty, when's your battle?"

"Well, my battle is at 1:30 in arena 4. How about you Anabel, when is your battle?"

Anabel sighed, "Well, it seems we battle at the same time. I also battle at 1:30, although I am in arena 3."

"That's too bad," said May. "That means that we can't all go to watch both of you battle today. What should we do?"

Brock thought about it, "Well, it just means we are each going to have choose one of the battles to watch. It's too bad we can't all be there to support both of you, but I suppose we can split the group in two and send half of us to each battle."

Gary nodded, "That makes sense. I'll be going to Misty's battle."

Ash laughed, "Of course you will." Gary blushed at that but Ash just continued talking, "Anyways, I'll be going to Anabel's battle. I haven't seen much of her battle style and I want a good chance to examine it in case I have to face her in battle."

"Does that mean you've seen a lot of my style?" Misty asked.

Ash shook his head, "Not really, but I do know that you use water types and give vocal commands. Anabel gives telepathic commands to her Pokémon and that isn't something I have had to fight against much in my life so I want a chance to get a good look at it so I can be prepared."

May and Brock then decided to go with Ash to watch Anabel's battle while Max and Dawn decided to go with Gary to Misty's battle.

After that was decided, Brock spoke up, "Hey Dawn, do you know when Paul battles? Or where he is? Why aren't you with him right now?"

Dawn sighed, "Paul gets really intense before his battles and I didn't want to disrupt his concentration. As for his battle, he is at noon in Arena 1."

Gary grinned, "He really needs to cool down a bit. If he keeps getting so worked up, he's just going to end up losing or giving himself a stroke."

Dawn giggled, "I don't know about that, I think it's kind of cute how he gets so into his battles."

When everyone just looked at her funny, she just shrugged. A large rumbling noise was then heard from within the group and everyone turned to look at Ash whose entire face had turned red.

"Sorry guys, I told you I hadn't had breakfast yet, so I'm going to go get some food before my battle starts. I'll see you guys later." With that, he took off towards the Pokémon Center with his Houndoom close behind.

The group watched as Ash left before trying to think of what to do next. Eventually though, Brock did ask, "Anyways, we have an hour and a half until Five's battle, so what do you guys want to do now?"

Anabel looked around before speaking up, "Why don't we go sight-seeing? I mean, I've been here for almost a week and haven't actually looked around at all."

The group agreed and decided to go and explore the sights of Indigo Plateau.

-Arena 8. 11:30-

A young man walked out onto the battlefield and looked around. The sight wasn't as impressive as the main coliseum, but it was still an impressive sight to behold. The seats weren't full, but the young man assumed the people were away getting lunch. It was that time of the day after all. In fact, the man thought he could go for some food as well.

He looked at the people who were in the audience and thought to himself, _These people are probably expecting another less than stellar preliminary battle. Although this won't be the most exciting thing they have seen, I'm pretty sure they are about to be surprised._

The young man then looked around once more and spotted a familiar group of people sitting in the stand directly next to the middle of the field. He smiled at his friends who smiled back and cheered him on.

Ash sighed; it had been too long since he had had people cheering him on like that. He had almost forgotten the feeling. Now however, it just made him smile a little more and wave at them. His eyes met each of his friends individually for a brief moment. He thought he saw May and Anabel blush, but he just moved his gaze onto his opponent.

His opponent was a tall lady. Almost as tall as himself. She had long brown hair held up in a simple ponytail. She had hazel eyes as well as a sturdy looking body. Ash crossed to the middle of the field and shook her hand.

"Good luck in the battle," the woman said, "I can promise that you're going to need it. Just because you have some codename doesn't mean you scare me."

Ash grinned, "Well, I'm glad I don't scare you. My only goal is to win. I let my Pokémon do the scaring." To emphasize his point, Houndoom let out a low growl and bared his teeth. Ash laughed, "Anyways, good luck in this battle. Hopefully you can give my Pokémon a workout."

With that, the competitors went to opposite sides of the field and took their places in the trainer boxes.

The battle judge raised a flag, "This will be a 3-on-3 battle between Susan Slate from Sinnoh and Five from Kanto. There will be no substitutions and no time limit. The battle is over once one trainer runs out of usable Pokémon. Begin." With that, he brought his flag down, signaling the matches beginning.

Immediately, Houndoom jumped onto the rocky earth field. Susan smirked, "I figured you would start with your mutt" She then grabbed a pokeball and tossed it, "Rhydon, lets battle!"

Ash looked at the massive rock Pokémon that stood before his own Pokémon and smirked. "Well Houndoom, let's get this over with. I don't want to reveal too much, so end this quickly. Flamethrower, agility and then iron tail should do the trick."

At the same time, Susan called out, "Rhydon, knock that dog down with an earthquake. Then charge in and use hammer arm!"

As Rhydon began shaking the ground with a massive earthquake, Houndoom ran at full speed while launching searing flames at his opponent. The shaking ground didn't even cause him to stumble as he had trained against more powerful earthquakes than this one.

Before Susan could react to Houndoom not falling to the earthquake, Houndoom jumped in the air with a glowing tail and struck his opponent at full power right in the head. After enduring intense damage from Houndoom's flamethrower, the super effective iron tail was too much to handle. Rhydon fainted onto the ground, silencing the crowd. Not even 10 seconds into the battle and Ash had already knocked out one of his opponents Pokémon.

After getting over his initial surprise, the ref raised his flag, "Rhydon is unable to battle, Houndoom is the winner."

Susan raised a pokeball, "Rhydon, return. Good job and don't worry, we'll win this battle for you." She then grabbed a new Pokeball and raised it, "Machamp, lets finish this!"

Before Houndoom, a massive muscle covered Pokémon with four arms stood. Machamp glared at the dog who just seemed to smirk at his opponent. Machamp didn't like that and proceeded to stomp the ground to show off his power. In return, Houndoom just let out a little smoke from his nostrils.

Before Machamp could get any angrier, Susan called out, "Calm down and don't let him get to you. That's what they want to have happen. Now, get up close and use cross chop!"

Ash looked at his Houndoom, "Just dodge for now. He'll wear himself out eventually."

For the next several minutes, Machamp attempted to strike Houndoom with a super effective fighting move, but Houndoom managed to nimbly evade all of them. With each dodge, Machamp got even more upset and angry. He wasn't used to this happening and couldn't comprehend this dog Pokémon mocking him this way. Eventually, Machamp stopped listening to his trainer and focused solely on trying to hit Houndoom.

Ash grinned when he saw this happen, "Houndoom, use a constant flamethrower on him until he drops."

Houndoom barked his agreement before launching a powerful flamethrower that followed his opponent wherever he went. Susan could only watch as her powerful fighting pokemon got burnt by the unending stream of flames. She knew that Houndoom had won this battle.

After about half a minute, Machamp finally fell to the ground unconscious. The ref raised his flag again, "Machamp is unable to battle, the winner of this match is Houndoom."

Susan returned her Pokémon and hesitated as the decided on her next Pokémon. Deciding a change of plans was in order, she sent out her next Pokémon. "Electivire, let's go!" She called.

When Ash saw his next opponent he grinned, "Hey Houndoom, this battle might actually be fun. You ready?"

Houndoom barked before letting loose a powerful stream of flames into the air. Ash smiled, "Okay then, start out with agility and nasty plot."

Susan looked on in surprise, "What? But how? You can't use nasty plot on the move." Ash just smirked. Susan groaned, "Fine, Electivire, use screech and then set up a light screen."

Electivire obliged and let loose an ear-splitting cry that startled all who heard it. Although the sound was quite horrendous, Houndoom refused to give in to the sound and kept up his rapid running.

Once Ash saw that Houndoom had finished his stat-boosting move, he called out, "Now, use giga impact followed by overheat."

Faster than many thought possible, Houndoom charged at Electivire, covered in a purple glow. Susan, however, called out, "Intercept it with thunderpunch!"

As Houndoom approached, Electivire's fist began sparking with electricity. As Houndoom made contact with his opponent, Electivire struck Houndoom in the side with a powerful punch.

Houndoom called out in slight pain as he was forced to the side, but didn't break his concentration for his next move. As he was thrown away, he launched a power-boosted overheat directly at Electivire's torso.

The light screen could be seen blocking some of the attack, but after a few seconds the shield gave way to the flames and Electivire was blasted with the full force of the powerful attack.

When the attack died down, Electivire fell to one knee. Houndoom resumed his position in front of his trainer. As the electric type stood up, Ash grinned, "Wow, that is a powerful Pokémon you have there. I can't even remember the last time I faced an opponent who didn't fall to that attack. Anyways, it's time to end this. Houndoom, fire blast into iron tail."

Houndoom instantly launched a powerful wave of fire at his opponent while charging in with a glowing tail.

Susan saw the approaching flames and called out, "Quick! Block it with a thunder attack!"

Electivire did just that and although the attacks cancelled each other out, Electivire was not prepared to get hit with an iron tail attack at the epicenter of where the overheat had hit earlier. The damage caused was too much and Electivire fell to the ground.

The ref looked at the fallen Pokémon and raised a flag, "Electivire is unable to battle, the winner of the match is Houndoom. The winner of this preliminary battle is Five and his Houndoom!"

With that, the crowd erupted into cheers. The battle had been pretty one-sided, but they had gotten to see an obviously powerful trainer make himself known. The people couldn't wait to see how well the man known as Five did in this competition.

Up in the crowd, a small group of people just watched the battle in slight amazement. Eventually, Gary spoke up, "Well, we already knew that his Houndoom was strong, I guess seeing it action though was rather surprising."

Max nodded, "I know. I mean, I battled him, but it wasn't the same since he was trying to make me a better trainer. In this battle though, he had no mercy for his opponent and annihilated her. It was incredible!"

Anabel agreed completely. Since she knew who Five really was, she found the battle even more impressive. She realized that Ash still had the same enthusiasm for battle, but controlled himself better and was able to direct the flow of the battle to fit his needs. He no longer recklessly charged in, instead opting to devise a strategy first. She assumed this was a direct result of spending several years battling with more than a tournament at stake and losing not an option. She felt bad that he had had to go through such an experience, but it was clear that it had made him an even more formidable foe.

Eventually, she spoke up, "I agree. Five really is an impressive trainer. His Pokémon are strong and they seem to know what he wants them to do, even with the most basic of commands. Although he doesn't command them telepathically as I do, he speaks quiet enough that his opponent probably can't hear most of what he says on the battlefield. He is going to be a real challenge to beat in this tournament."

"You got that right," said Gary. "As a researcher, I can assure you that those Pokémon he battled were quite strong. Yet even with their strength, Five managed to beat them without even breaking a sweat. He beat all three of the Pokémon and his Houndoom was only hit with one attack. That is astonishing."

Brock nodded, "Yeah, he was only hit with one attack. That attack also happened to be a powerful thunderpunch. Yet Houndoom barely flinched from it. Houndoom can clearly take some hits and yet the battle strategy seems to involve avoiding hits. Normally a Pokémon is only trained to do one of those things, so to see Houndoom doing both is quite impressive."

May then spoke up, "Well, I'm just glad he isn't my problem. If he had spent as much effort training to be a coordinator as he has at being a trainer, I don't think anyone would be able to stop him. He is an impressive man."

Dawn giggled, "You sound like you're in love with him."

May blushed and this caused Anabel to get a little upset. She didn't want anything to interfere with her and Ash, but if May was in love with him, what chance did she have? After all, May had travelled with Ash through Hoenn and the Battle Frontier while Anabel had only known him for a couple of days prior to this tournament.

Dawn saw Anabel's face and giggled even more, "OOH! Anabel, do you like Five as well? EEEK! This is going to be SOO much fun!" Dawn cried out.

It was now Anabel's turn to blush and May's turn to glare. May might not know very much about Five, but she knew that she liked him and the thought of having to fight with Anabel over him was not making her very happy. May knew that she was a considered very attractive, but one look at Anabel and she knew the same could be said for her. Also, since Anabel was also a battler and not a coordinator, that could give her an advantage.

The rest of the group watched this in relative amusement, although some were a little worried about what would happen if things got out of hand. Eventually, Gary turned to Paul, who had joined the group to watch the battle, and spoke, "How do you put up with her? If Misty started squealing all the time at the prospect of love I don't know what I would do."

Paul sighed, "It is a little annoying, but you get used to it. Besides, who really cares? All this really means is we get one more thing to watch during this tournament." Paul then whispered to Gary, "Also, since I think you are also aware of who Five really is, that makes this that much more entertaining, does it not?"

Gary smirked, "Yeah, I know who he is, but how do you know?"

Paul laughed, "Well it was kind of obvious to me after I battled him. Then he mysteriously knew my name without me telling him. I also know that Brock knows who he is and Anabel knows as well."

Gary started at that, "Anabel knows? How?"

Paul grinned, "Well, remember when I told you about Ash's little date last night? Well it was her he was talking to late at night under the stars in a clearing in the forest by a lake."

At that, Gary began cracking up causing everyone to look at him funny. Eventually Misty spoke up, "Mind telling us what you guys have been talking about for the past minute that just so happens to be so funny?"

Gary shook his head while Paul smirked, "No, it's nothing. Just talking about funny stories from the past. Now Paul, doesn't your battle start soon? You should hurry over or else you'll miss it."

Paul checked the time and cursed, "Damn it. I knew Five's battle would be quick so I decided to watch it. Now I got distracted talking to you guys. Well, see you all later after I win." And with that, Paul took off towards his battle.

The group decided to follow Paul so they could watch his first battle before getting lunch. Anabel, however, hung back. After the others had left, she made her way towards the trainer's entrance and found Ash.

She grinned at him, "That was an impressive battle you had there. You beat all of her Pokémon with just your Houndoom."

Ash grinned, "Thanks, but the credit should mostly go to Houndoom. I didn't really have to do anything. My opponent had powerful Pokémon, but they weren't able to handle Houndoom's speed and power."

Anabel smiled, "It wasn't just speed and power though, Houndoom took a direct hit from a powerful attack and barely flinched. That was incredibly impressive as well."

Houndoom looked over at Anabel and smiled. Ash saw this and smiled as well, "Look Anabel, I think he likes you."

Anabel looked at the hound and smiled, "Is that true? Do you like me now?"

Houndoom shrugged before speaking to Anabel's mind, _Well, I don't know how much of a say I have in it. My master seems to be rather fond of you and that brunette coordinator girl. He also seems to like his old friends. I know he wouldn't be friends with bad people so the least I can do is try and act friendly._

Anabel tried to suppress a glare, _He like May as well as me?"_

Houndoom shrugged, _I don't really know. He tries to deny liking anyone, but I can tell. As it stands right now though, I'd have to say that you're winning._

Ash once again watched as Anabel talked with his Houndoom. It was rather surprising to see Houndoom willingly talk to her when he was so averse to communicating with people other than himself. The sight made him happy, but he couldn't help but wonder what they were talking about.

Eventually, the curiosity got the better of him, "So, Anabel, what are you and Houndoom talking about?"

This caused Anabel to blush and try to come up with something reasonable as an excuse, "Well, um, you see, we were just talking about why Houndoom seems to like me now. That's all."

Ash sighed, "Of course it is. I also suppose I won't be getting the full story from you or Houndoom. Oh well. If we hurry, we can probably catch the end of Paul's battle. I want to see him battle as well because knowing him, I'll probably get stuck battling him at some point in this tournament."

Anabel looked at Ash, "And are you worried about facing him? Didn't you beat him in the Sinnoh league and then beat him right after you first got here?"

Ash shrugged, "So what? Those were all past battles. Besides, a one-on-one battle isn't very telling when it comes to overall ability. Paul at the time didn't know it was me, also he had just finished a training session so his Pokémon was already tired. With better preparation and more energized Pokémon, he will be a bit more challenging to beat. How about you? Are you worried about facing anyone in particular during this tournament?"

Anabel shrugged, "Not really. I don't have a lot of rival's like you do. In fact, you're the only person here besides Brandon who has beaten me before. As I said, I've never really done these tournaments before. That has prevented me from building up the large number of rival's that you seem to have. Speaking of which, I saw Tobias was here. Isn't he the guy who beat you pretty bad in the Sinnoh league?"

"Yup. He beat me pretty darned good in our last battle," Ash said. "This time though, things will be different. Speaking of Tobias though, what did he do after winning the Sinnoh league? I never heard much while I was travelling around. Did he challenge the elite four?"

Anabel shook her head, "No. He said he wanted to make sure he was ready for the challenge before he took them on. After the Sinnoh league, he pretty much disappeared and no one has heard from him since. No one really looked for him though because he had always been a mysterious figure who kept to himself. In fact, no one even knows what his six Pokémon are. They knew about his Darkrai from the majority of the Sinnoh league as well as his Latios that he was forced to bring out in his battle with you. As far as I'm aware, you're the only person to ever defeat one of his Pokémon. Although you lost in the semis of the tournament, most people consider you the second strongest trainer to participate in it."

Ash grinned, "Well, I suppose that works, although second best isn't going to cut it this time. I'm here for the win and I intend to earn it. If anyone stands in my way, whether it's Paul, Tobias, or even a champion, I intend to bring them down."

"Well, it's good to see you still have the same indomitable spirit," Anabel laughed. "Your confidence is rather impressive and I'm sure your Pokémon find strength in it."

Ash grinned, "Thanks. Anyways, we're finally to Paul's battle arena. Let's go and check it out."

With that, the two walked into the arena and found their group of friends. Ash took a quick look at the battlefield and scoreboard and sighed, "Just as I figured, Paul is crushing his opponent. He's yet to lose a Pokémon and from the looks of this battle, it's going to end that way. I probably won't be able to learn more about his fighting style until the later rounds."

At the sound of his voice, the group of friends turned to face him. Gary spoke up, "Hey Five, did you have a nice walk over?" Gary then glanced from Ash to Anabel and back again.

Ash sighed and tried to fight back a blush, "Yeah, it was a great walk over. Anyways, how's Paul doing?" He already knew the answer, but he really wanted to change the topic seeing as May was glaring daggers at Anabel who wasn't as good at hiding her blush from Gary's question.

Max spoke up to answer Ash, "Well, he seems to be doing almost as good as you did. His Torterra has been taking some hits, but doesn't seem to be taking very much damage from them all. His opponent is getting demolished by Torterra's power. Still, I think your battle was a little more impressive."

Ash shrugged, "At this level, a win is a win. The opponents' strengths are too inconsistent to judge power accurately between battlers of different battles. You need to wait for a few rounds before making those conclusions. By the third or fourth battle of the preliminaries we should have a better idea of each opponents power."

Max nodded, "I suppose that makes sense, but still, your battle was amazing. I mean-"

Ash cut him off, "We can talk about my battle later, for now we should watch Paul as he finishes his."

Max nodded his head and went back to watching Paul's Torterra land a final blow on his opponents Scizor.

As the Scizor was rendered unable to battle, the crowd erupted in cheers at Paul's dominating performance. Dawn immediately rushed down to meet Paul while the rest of the group slowly followed suit.

Once everyone had met up, they decided to head out and get lunch together before the afternoon battles took place. As the group ate, the talk centered around the two battles that had just taken place.

"So, what did you think of your first opponent Five?" Max asked.

Ash shrugged his shoulders, "She had powerful Pokémon, but they weren't ready to compete on an elite level. With the right training they could get there, but if she keeps training the way she probably has been, she won't get much further than where she currently is. How about you Paul? I didn't get to see much of your battle. How was it?"

"Wasn't even a challenge," he smirked. "The guy landed some hits on Torterra, but that's just how Torterra battles. No real damage was done. I hope my future opponents can at least push me a little bit."

Ash sighed, "Well, it is just the preliminaries. Once we get to the next stage, I'm sure you will get plenty of challenges. And if you get to face me, you'll get a challenge you won't be able to take down."

"No way!" Dawn exclaimed. "Paul is the strongest trainer here. You might be good, but I guarantee that Paul could take you down."

Ash couldn't help but laugh at Dawn's defense of Paul. Pretty soon, Gary and Brock joined in as well. After that, the rest of the group couldn't help but join at Paul's blushing face and Dawn's confused expression.

Once everyone had calmed down, Ash decided to speak, "Of course he is. I'm sure Paul will defeat me. I can't believe I forgot about how Paul is the best."

Paul then glared at Ash as Dawn blushed. To try and save her friends from more embarrassment, May decided to change the subject, "So Misty, are you ready for your first battle?"

Misty nodded, "Oh yeah. I'm going to dominate this first battle. I'm a water type master fighting on a water field, no one could beat me here."

May nodded, "I see. I suppose that makes sense." She turned to face Anabel and in a slightly harder tone asked, "And how about you? Are you ready for your battle?"

Anabel didn't fail to notice the slight change in tone, but decided to just ignore it for the time being. "Yes I'm ready. I'm battling on an Earth field in arena 3. I don't expect too much of a challenge, but I am going to be careful so as to not make any mistakes."

May then turned to Ash, "Hey Five, I never got a chance to tell you what a wonderful job you did in your battle today. You showed that Susan lady who the best trainer was. Watching you battle was pretty impressive and I can't wait to see your future battles."

Ash grinned, "Thanks. I've worked really hard these past several years to get this strong, so being able to show the world my power is quite gratifying. Still, I'm looking forward to watching more battles so I can get a better idea of where I stand amongst the elite."

Anabel then interrupted, "Geez Five, calm down. You will be able to prove your strength to the world soon enough. Don't worry about it. If you get this worked up now, you're going to run out of energy before you get very far into the tournament."

And for a while, the two girls and Ash talked about Ash's battles and what was in store for him. Most of the others had broken into their own conversations as well. As the friends talked, Gary leaned over to Paul and whispered, "You see how those two are competing for Ash right now? Imagine what May would do if she learned about Ash's late night discussion with Anabel."

The thought made Paul snort and got him some funny looks. He then turned to Gary, "That would be rather amusing. I think if this drama starts to cool down, I'll let her know about it just so I can watch the ensuing fight."

As the group continued to talk, a familiar black-haired and green-clad bard walked over to the group. "Hello once again my friends. It is a pleasure to run into you all once more."

The group looked up and spotted the visitor before they all began greeting him. Ash took special care to not greet him as he had not yet met Nando under the guise of being Five. Once Nando's glance reached Ash, the bard smiled. "I do not believe I have had the pleasure of making your acquaintance yet," Nando stated rather musically.

Five smiled and Dawn proceeded to introduce them, "Oh yeah, Nando, this is Five. You know, the mysterious guy we were telling you about yesterday?" She then turned to look at Ash, "Five, this is Nando. He's a bard and he's pretty cool as well. He does contests and battles and always plays music for people."

Ash smiled, "Hello Nando, it's nice to meet you."

Nando smiled back, "Yes, as it is nice to meet you as well. Now tell me, are you participating in this little tournament?"

Ash grinned, "Yes I am. In fact, I just had my first preliminary battle a little bit ago. My Houndoom defeated all of my opponents Pokémon with little trouble. How-"

"Little trouble?" Max interrupted, "Your Houndoom didn't even break a sweat. He looked like it was the easiest thing in the world taking down those strong Pokémon."

Ash shrugged, "I wouldn't say that. Houndoom actually went full power with his last attack on Electivire. He only does that with opponents who can handle it. Electivire was a decent amount stronger than the ladies other Pokémon, so Houndoom wasn't quite ready to be hit by the thunderpunch that was delivered. I could tell because he lost a little concentration after being hit. Anyways, as I was saying, how about you, Nando? Have you battled yet today?"

Nando smiled, "Indeed I have. Although it sounds like I had a little more trouble than you did. My opponent managed to defeat my Sunflora and I was forced to finish him off with Lopunny." Nando then turned to face the rest of the group, "And how about you guys? How have your battles been so far today?"

"Well, I managed to win my battle, but it was a close one. My opponent put up a real fight," Max said. "Paul demolished his opponent almost as quickly as Five did. Misty and Anabel both battle at 1:30 so we're eating now before the battles."

Nando smiled, "I see, well it's good to hear that you guys have been winning your battles. And to you ladies, good luck in your afternoon matches, now, I must be off to spread my music. I shall see you all later."

With that, Nando walked off, leaving the group to finish their lunches.

Once everyone was finished, the group split in two to support both of the trainers who had battles. Dawn, Gary, and Max walked to Arena 4 with Misty while May, Brock, Ash, and surprisingly Paul walked to Arena 3 with Anabel.

Ash turned to Paul, "So, why are you coming with us? Don't you have your training to get on to?"

Paul looked at Ash, "Well, I could train, or I could focus on learning about my opponents battle technique. Like you, I consider Anabel a larger threat than Misty and so am trying to learn as much as I can about how best to battle her."

Ash looked at Paul, "I don't know if Anabel is a bigger threat, but her battle style is a lot harder to plan for than Misty's. Misty is quite skilled with her water Pokémon, but only using one type makes her predictable as well."

May then interrupted the two, "Can you guys talk about anything except battling? I mean, I know that this is a battling tournament, but there are other things to talk about."

Paul groaned, "May, you really need to understand the importance of this. This is a once every four years kind of tournament. If you mess up, you can't try again the following year or do it in another region, that means we have to put everything we have into everything we do here to make sure that we accomplish what we want during this tournament."

Ash nodded, "He's right, if we let up at all, we'll be out of this tournament before we can even blink. All the trainers here are skilled so we need to get all the information we can about them."

"Okay, I guess that makes sense, but then why are you two working together? Aren't you supposed to be opponents? Why share your knowledge with each other if you are just going to be using it against each other in battle?"

Paul laughed, "Well, me and Five here, we already know about each other's battle style, so there's no worry about letting slip something that shouldn't be let slip. For us, conversing about opponents allows us to both gain more knowledge to ensure that we can meet up with each other later on in this tournament and get the battle we both want."

May looked at them questioningly, "How do you guys already know about each other's battle style's? You just met and have only had a single one-on-on battle. That couldn't possibly be enough to learn about how you both fight, can it?"

This time Ash spoke up, "Actually, we're both skilled fighters with lots of experience, this allows us to determine quite a bit in a short amount of time. For us, the battle with each other as well as what we have seen from other battles in this tournament is enough for us to have already figured each other out."

May nodded her head and went over to talk with Brock. Paul leaned over to Ash, "Nice cover-up. How long do you think you can keep this little charade of yours going for?"

Ash grinned before answering, "At first, I was going to wait until I was in the finals and tell them right before the match, but at this point, I think I'm going to drop little hints here and there until they figure it out. Since most of you guys already know who I am, I find it rather entertaining to see how long it takes the rest of them to figure it out as well."

Paul glanced at Ash, "How many people have figured it out so far?"

"Well, you were the second person to do so. First, I had to tell Brock so he could help heal Pikachu. After that, Gary figured it out. During the opening ceremonies, Tobias took one look at me and figured it out. Then last night Anabel figured it out. That leaves May, Dawn, Misty, Max, and Nando to guess it and I'm pretty sure Nando will figure it out before long. He always seemed like a pretty smart guy who it would be hard to hide this kind of thing from."

Paul laughed, "Well, I would make bets with you about who will figure it out next, but then you would probably act differently to make sure that you would win. Anyways, what are you going to do about your girl situation? I find it quite amusing and can't wait to see what happens next."

Ash groaned, "Shut up Paul. There is no situation and I'm not going to do anything. Once this tournament is over, I might consider doing something, but for now at least, nothing will happen."

Paul smirked, "Well, based upon your conversation last night, I'd say things are pretty serious between you and Anabel. I think May can kind of tell as well because she is getting a little more aggressive towards you. I don't think you're going to have until after the tournament to do something, but either way, I think I'm going to enjoy the show."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up Paul," Ash huffed. "Speaking of girl's though, how did you and Dawn end up together, the last I knew she was travelling alone with Kenny to try and get a serious relationship going with him."

"Well, that is hardly any of your business, but I will tell you that her and Kenny stopped working together once Kenny realized that he was completely inferior to her at contests. His jealousy got the best of him and they had an ugly break-up. As for how I got with her, that is not something you need to know."

Ash sighed, "Whatever. I'll just ask Dawn then. She seems more than willing to divulge these sorts of things." Then, before Paul could respond, Ash walked up to Anabel. "Hey Anabel, how you doing? You ready for this battle?"

Anabel looked over at Ash, "I suppose. I'm a little nervous, but I think I can handle it."

Ash grinned, "Don't worry about the nerves. Just focus on your bonds with your Pokémon as well as remembering that you have friends supporting you the whole way."

Anabel smiled at him, "Thanks Ash. You really have helped me to stay calm and I'll make sure I do my best out there."

"Well good," Ash said. "Your best is all that anyone could ask for. I'm sure that as long as you give it your all, you won't have any problem's out there."

Brock then walked up, "Ash is right, just stay calm. Also, treat it like any normal battle you would take part in in the Battle Frontier. If you can keep that mindset, you should do just fine."

"Thanks guys, your support means a lot to me. Now, we're at the arena, so go and get your seats so you can watch me get my first win!" Anabel exclaimed.

Ash smiled, "Of course. And good luck Anabel. I'm sure you won't need any, but a little bit of luck never hurt anyone."

So Ash and his friends went to get seats in the arena while Anabel made her way down to the battlefield. Once the group had gotten their seats near the middle of the field, Brock turned to Ash, "So, Five, how do you think Anabel's going to do?"

Ash thought about it for a few seconds before answering. "Well," he began, "if she battles as well as she is capable of, she should do pretty well. A lot of this is going to come down to her opponent though. If he can get past the surprise of battling against someone who gives telepathic commands, Anabel will have to work harder to get the win. If, however, the guy gets surprised or overwhelmed by her battle style, she should have no trouble at all defeating him."

May then turned to Ash, "So, as a competitor, what exactly are you going to be looking for in Anabel's battle style?"

Ash looked at May and grinned, "I'm going to learn to read her attacks."

"What?" May asked, rather surprised by that comment. "What exactly does that mean?"

Ash just shrugged, "You'll see. Just wait."

Paul looked at Ash, "You really think you'll be able to read her attacks by the end of just one battle?"

Ash shrugged again, "It shouldn't be too hard. She's so used to getting the jump on her opponent with the telepathic commands that she probably hasn't worked much on masking her attacks."

May just looked confused by this, but Brock seemed to understand. "I see," he said, "that makes sense now that I think about it. Can you really read attacks though? From what I've heard, that's an incredibly difficult thing to master."

"Well," Ash began, "my, ah, _situation_ these past couple years put me in a position where I needed to learn the skill. It took some time, but I've pretty much got it down now."  
Brock just nodded his head. "Well guys, it looks like the battles about to start, so let's watch the battle and support Anabel."

The three others nodded and turned their attention to the battlefield. As the battle began, Anabel sent out her Alakazam while her opponent sent out an Arcanine.

Pretty early on, it became apparent that her opponent was not in the least bit prepared for the telepathic commands. Arcanine tried to put up a fight, but after his trainer got flustered, Arcanine also began losing concentration on the battle and got taken out by a powerful psybeam. The opponent then recalled his Arcanine and sent out a Gengar, hoping to get an advantage in the battle.

As the battle began, Ash began muttering under his breath. May looked at him funny, "What did you say? I didn't quite catch that."

Ash looked up surprised, "What? Oh, sorry. I said 'Psybeam'."

May just nodded her head confusedly before returning to the battle. After that, Ash decided to speak up.

He watched Alakazam tense and said, "Ice punch."

Right after he said that, Alakazam's hand froze as he tried to punch the Gengar who barely managed to dodge.

May looked at him, "How did you do that?"

Ash just shrugged and said, "Psychic."

Immediately, a light blue glow surrounded Gengar and threw him across the field, inflicting major damage to the ghost.

Before May could question him anymore, Ash spoke once again. "Fire punch. Shadow ball."

Alakazam immediately shot off towards Gengar with a fist that was starting to glow with flames. After the hit, a ball of shadows appeared in his hands and was immediately launched at Gengar, rendering the Pokémon unable to battle.

May looked at Ash in amazement, "How did you do that?"

Ash just shrugged, "I told you, I'm learning to read her attacks. Just as I predicted, she hasn't worked very much at masking them, which allows this to be a good counter-strategy while battling her. If her opponent paid half as much attention as I currently am, he would be able to do the same thing. Instead, he's let her get to him and is now panicking."

May looked at Ash, "So by reading her attacks you can predict her moves? How does that work?"

Ash just shrugged, "It's a simple concept. Watch the Pokémon as it initiates an attack. Prior to the attack becoming visible, the Pokémon's body tenses in different ways. By using these observations to your advantage, you can see what attack is being used without needing to hear your opponent speak."

May gaped at him, "And after just the first battle against Arcanine you were able to figure out these patterns? How did you do it so quickly?"

Once again, Ash just shrugged. "Practice. It's a valuable skill that I've picked up. Not all opponents scream their attacks for the enemy to hear. There is a certain amount of intelligence in whispering your attack so only your Pokémon hears it. This prevents your opponent from being able to counter and has a similar affect to giving telepathic commands. Over the years, I've learned to read attacks because of this so I can get a jump on countering them."

May looked at Ash in question, "Where did you battle people like that? I've been to many battles and people always call out their attacks quite vocally. I mean, I've seen quiet battlers before, but never to the point of not being able to hear the commands."

Ash nodded, "That doesn't surprise me. Many battlers like to make a show of it. By being loud and bold, they believe it will intimidate their opponents. They also want to please the crowd. My battles though, have been under drastically different circumstances."

"Like what?" May asked. "You haven't told us anything about your history, so what kinds of battles have you been in?"

Ash looked at May, "When you battle with more than a victory on the line, with stakes higher than you could imagine, the battles reach an intensity level that requires these skills. There is no crowd to please. All that you are trying to do is remain alive. Once you have taken place in enough of those battles, you will understand."

Brock and Paul, who both knew what Ash was referring to, nodded in agreement. Brock didn't like thinking about what Ash had been through, but he understood why Ash had picked up these skills and had done what he did. Paul nodded because he too had battled this way. Mostly because of his obsession with power and not putting on a show, but he understood the value of these skills as he had trained himself to have them as well.

May just looked at Ash in shock, "Why have you been battling with your life on the line for years? Who exactly are you and what have you done?"

Ash just smiled at her ignorance and returned his gaze to the battle that was finally ending. "My life is not the happiest of lives. Someday, I may tell you my story, but for now, there is no reason for you to know."

As the group went back to watching the battle, they saw Anabel's Alakazam use a thunderpunch on a Blastoise, ending the battle for good. The judge raised his flag, "Blastoise is unable to battle. The winner of the battle is Alakazam. The winner of the preliminary match is Anabel and Alakazam."

Ash smiled, "Well, that was a good battle. I'm glad that Anabel won, although I wish I could have seen her get pushed around a little so I could see how she reacts under pressure, but I suppose this was a good way for her to build her confidence for the future battles."

Paul looked at Ash, who was standing next to May, and decided to be annoying. "Yeah, yeah. Sure that's what it is. I bet you're just glad your little girlfriend won her first match."

Ash's face turned red as he glared at Paul. Paul just smirked and walked away. Brock had to try his hardest not to laugh at the angry face May was making. She was moving her glare from Anabel to Ash and then back again, as if trying to see if Paul's words were true.

Eventually, she turned to Ash and asked him, "What did Paul mean by that? Are you dating Anabel?"

Ash sighed, "No I'm not. Anabel is just a friend. Anyways, let's go down and meet up with her. Then we can meet up with the others and see how Misty's battle went."

May tried to detect a lie in Ash's statement, but she couldn't find one. She had, however, noticed the blush that had appeared at Paul's comment and that still annoyed her. With a huff, she responded. "Fine. Let's go congratulate her on her victory."

Brock watched May in amusement before sending Ash a knowing grin. Ash sighed, he had a crush on both girls, and it seemed they both liked him as well. Whatever happened, one of them would end up hurt and that made him feel bad.

Once he broke out of his thoughts, he headed out of the arena to find Anabel, May and Brock following close behind.

When the group found Anabel, Ash smiled, "Good job out there. Your opponent didn't even know what hit him."

Anabel smiled, "Well, he wasn't that bad, he just got overwhelmed by my silent commands. Once he got flustered, the match was really easy. Still, thanks for the advice on staying calm in battle and thanks for coming to support me."

Ash grinned, "It was my pleasure. I got to support my friend and scout my enemy at the same time."

Anabel smirked, "So I'm an enemy now? Just another person to beat on your quest for the ultimate victory?"

"Pretty much," Ash joked, "Except for the part where you're also my friend."

Anabel smiled, "Well, if you're my friend, do you mind telling me what you got out of my battle?"

"I guess I can tell you. Giving silent commands was all good, but it wasn't too hard for me to read your attacks before they were even launched. I spent half of the battle calling attacks for you."

Anabel raised an eyebrow, "Really? You can do that?"

This time May answered, "Yeah. He was standing there watching and calling out attacks. As soon as he would say it, your Alakazam would immediately use it. It was a little freaky at first, but it was also pretty cool to see."

Anabel looked at Ash, "I suppose that means if we battle, my silent commands won't work to disrupt you?"

Ash grinned, "Nope. All I have to do is focus on your Pokémon and I can see what's coming. The real question is whether or not my silent commands will mess with you?"

Anabel laughed, "Well, if we battle, I'm sure we'll find out."

Brock then spoke up, "Well Anabel, that was an impressive battle. Did it help calm your nerves for this tournament?"

"Yeah, it did. Going out there and just battling like that was fun and helped me to calm down. I think in the future I won't be nearly as stressed," she informed them.

Ash shook his head, "Well, yes and no. You will still feel the stress and pressure, but it will be different. You will be more in control of it and it will do more to serve as encouragement to do your best and less as a distraction."

As Anabel considered this, the group had made its way over to the outside of Misty's battle arena. As they got there, they spotted the other group of their friends walking out.

Once the groups met, Anabel looked at Misty, "So, how did your battle go?"

Misty grinned, "I won of course. No one can beat m on a water field. How about you? How was your battle?"

Anabel smiled, "I won. My opponent couldn't keep up with my attacks and didn't put up much of a fight."

Misty sighed, "You're lucky you can do that, it makes it easier for you to get through the earlier battles and work your way to the later stages."

Anabel shrugged, "I guess, but just beating an opponent who gets flustered doesn't really prepare me for when I battle someone who doesn't get overwhelmed by my ability."

"Hmm," Misty said, "I never thought about it that way, but I guess it does make sense. Still, congratulations on your win."

"You too, Misty," Anabel said.

May then came up with an idea, "Hey, now that today's battles are done for all of us, we should go shopping!"

Ash's eyes widened at the thought. He had been shopping with May, Misty, and Dawn individually and that was bad enough. The thought of going with all three at the same time was rather terrifying. He quickly stammered out a response, "Um, well, you girls have fun with that, as a competitor though, I need to scout my opponents, so I think I'm going to have to pass on this and go watch some battles."

Dawn looked at Ash, "Well, Five, I guess that excuse will save you for now, but once the battles are done, we're going to force you to come with us, whether you like it or not."

Gary then tried to worm his way out of the trip as well, "You know what, I think I'm going to stick with Five. As a researcher, these battles are rather fascinating to observe."

Misty glared at him, "I don't think so. You can observe battles for your research later. Besides, it's not until the later rounds where the really good battles will be."

Gary sighed, "Fine. I'll go with you."

"BROCK!" May called out, "Just where do you think you're going?"

Brock turned around and tried to come up with an excuse, "Um, well, you see, I was just-"

Ash cut him off, "He was going to help me with Pikachu before I went and watched some battles. I'll send him to find you when he's done."

Brock gave a sigh of relief while May considered this, "Fine. For now, but you will be coming with us later, so be ready." She then turned to Max, "No excuses from you. You're coming with us whether you like it or not."

Max groaned, but knew there was no way out of it.

Anabel then decided to speak up, "Well, I think I'm good on shopping for now. I got enough done last time we all went, so I'm going to watch some battles and prepare for tomorrow's battle."

With that, the group split up to go about their afternoon activities. As Brock walked away with Ash, he turned to the younger man and spoke up, "Thanks for the save man, I owe you one."

Ash laughed, "I know what it's like to go shopping with them and it isn't something I would wish upon my worst enemies. I figured you'd done it enough times you deserved a break. Plus, I owe you for helping Pikachu. Besides, I think Gary and Max should be more than enough as bagboys for them."

As they continued walking, a familiar purple-haired boy appeared. "Well, it seems they're off to the mall without me. I'm glad I heard what they were up to before I walked over to you guys. If I had shown up, Dawn probably would have forced me along as well."

That made Ash laugh, "You let her drag you on shopping trips? What happened to the tough guy who didn't take orders from anyone?"

Paul glared at Ash, "Shut up. Once you get a girlfriend, let's see you try and avoid shopping. It won't be so funny then. Now, what are you guys up to?"

Ash shrugged, "I told the girls that Brock was going to help me with Pikachu, but today is a rest day for the training. It was simply a lie to save Brock's butt. I was planning on watching battles, unless someone had a better suggestion."

"Well, I have an idea," Paul said, "we should go check our opponents for tomorrow and see if they've battled yet today. Then we can watch their battles and get a head start on preparation."

Ash looked at Paul quizzically, "I thought they only announced the next day's match after the current days matches were completed."

Paul shook his head, "Well, after the second day they will, but since no one can get eliminated on day one, they publish the first two days battles at the same time. After that they wait for the end of the day to post matchups in order to account for the people that have been eliminated."

At that point, Anabel walked up to the group, "So, weren't you guys going to go do something? What are you just standing around here for?"

Ash looked at her, "Hey Anabel, I could ask you the same thing, didn't you want to go watch battles or something?"

"Yeah, but then I saw you guys were just standing around doing nothing. If the other girl's see you, they're going to be pretty mad that you lied to them."

Ash paled, "Good point. I don't really feel like doing anything though."

Paul looked at Ash, "Well, why don't you tell us a story from your past? Since all three of us know who you are, there shouldn't be any problem there, right?"

Ash thought about it before grinning, "Actually, I do have a story for you guys. Let's head over to the lake and I will tell you all."

With that, the group set off to Ash's hidden little training area. When they had all sat down, Ash looked at them and spoke, "Remember Jessie, James, and Meowth?"

This brought about groans from all of them.

"Gah, they were the most annoying people ever, they were worse than you, Ash. Always disturbing our battles and trying to take our Pokémon," Paul complained.

"Yeah," said Brock, "They never left us alone, following us around for four years."

Anabel nodded, "They were the Team Rocket people who attacked us twice while you were at the Battle Tower, right? The ones who captured me and Pikachu?"

Ash nodded, "Yeah, them. I see you all remember them fondly. Anyways, do you want to know what happened to them?"

"Well," Brock began, "Since you destroyed Team Rocket, I would assume they were arrested and imprisoned with the rest, but from the sounds of it, that isn't what happened."

Ash shook his head, "You got that right. They quit Team Rocket not long after Pikachu got injured."

This brought about some questioning looks, "Really?" Brock asked. "Why?"

Ash grinned, "I talked them out of it." When the others looked at him questioningly, he explained. "You see, about a month after we left the Pokémon Center that Pikachu had initially been healed at, they came and captured Pikachu like they always do. This caught me off guard because when Pikachu was injured, I was told that he was no longer good enough for Giovanni. I figured that meant Team Rocket would be leaving me alone.

"Anyways, before having my Houndour attack them, I decided to try and talk with them. At first, they didn't want to, but eventually I convinced them to listen to me. Anyways, I explained to them how Pikachu got seriously injured and was declared unsuitable for Giovanni. Jessie and James both seemed surprised to hear this. They immediately called to confirm this and when it was confirmed they were irritated for not being told earlier.

"After that, I explained to them that it was clear Team Rocket didn't respect them so I asked them why they stuck with them. They couldn't think of anything to say to that, so they asked me what I thought they should do.

"I shrugged my shoulders and told them they just follow their dreams. I told Jessie to go back to nursing school and try once more to graduate. As for James, I didn't really know what his dream was, but I told him to follow it. I left Meowth to do whatever he wanted as well.

"The trio agreed to it and that was the last I saw them. About a year ago though, right after I shut down Team Rocket, I got a message from James who told me he was travelling around the world with Meowth as an official battle judge. He also told me that Jessie had finally graduated Nursing school and was an assistant at a Pokémon Center in Vermillion City.

"Anyways, I'm glad they got their lives on track, evil just never seemed to agree with them. Also, I never really hated them, they were annoying, but that was all."

After that, the group just looked at Ash, "You're serious?" Paul asked.

Ash nodded, "Yup. That's what happened to them. Last I heard anyways. Who knows what they're up to now."

After that, the group just talked for a while about miscellaneous topics before heading back to meet up with everyone else around dinnertime. When the two groups met up, May looked at them and asked, "So, how was training with Pikachu and the battles you guys watched?"

Brock shrugged, "Training was fine. The battles weren't very exciting. Most of the good battles were earlier in the morning, so the afternoon ones weren't too exciting."

Ash nodded, "Yup. I didn't even get to watch my next opponent battle since he also battled in the morning. Tomorrow though, I battle in the afternoon."

Anabel looked at Ash, "Really? When do you battle?"

Ash just shrugged, "2:00 in arena 1. Grass field. Max battles at 10:30 in arena 9, which is a water field. Misty battles at 12:30 in arena 3, an earth field. Paul battles at 4:30 in arena 10, a forest field. Nando battles at 3:00 in arena 6, an ice field. You, Anabel, battle at 5:30 in arena 1. Does that answer your question?"

Everyone in the group was staring at Ash, who tried to shrug it off to eat, but was finding it hard. He finally spoke up, "If you guys keep looking at me like that, Houndoom is going to eat you. He really isn't liking these looks you're giving me."

That caused most of the people to quickly look away and Misty to speak up, "Well, I guess I don't have to look up my next battle then. I just have to follow Five everywhere and ask him. He seems to know all about these battles."

Ash merely shrugged, "You could also just turn around. There's a video board right behind you displaying all the information."

At that, the entire group turned and looked behind Misty to see that Ash was right. Ash looked at their faces and started laughing. He couldn't help it; their expressions were priceless. Pikachu found it amusing as well, while Houndoom merely shook his head at the whole situation.

Once everyone had gotten over their shock, and Ash had calmed down, they finished eating in silence. As the meal was finished, Ash spoke up, "Well, I'm going to do a little bit of last minute training before tomorrow. That means I would appreciate it if there were no late night visitors," Ash said. At that, he glared at Paul before giving Anabel a quick glance. "Anyways, tomorrow should be a fun day and we can all talk more then. If you really want to talk to me, find me in the morning. In fact, it would be nice if someone would make sure I was awake on time so I don't sleep in late like I did today. If I'm not in my room though, I'll be out in my own little training area. I'll see you guys later."

With that, Ash left the group and headed off into the forest. When he arrived at the lake, he let his Pokémon out and looked at Pikachu. "Hey buddy, go relax or something. I'm just going to take it easy."

Pikachu looked at Ash, "Pika? Chu pike pi pikachu?"

Ash looked at him and sighed, "No, we're not going to train. That was merely an excuse to be alone. As much as I like them all, I've been a little too social today. I'm not used to it and it's rather exhausting. I just want some alone time now with just you guys."

Pikachu smiled before speaking once more, "Chu pi pika chu pika?"

Ash groaned. "Okay, fine, I like both of them. Although right now I think I like Anabel more, but still, I want some alone time. If she wants to talk to me some more, this tournament is going on for a couple more weeks. There will be plenty of time to talk throughout. Besides, I can hardly tell her any more stories until she has seen my Pokémon. Also, I don't want to rush into anything. I've been away from people completely for a year and been away from most people for nearly three years. Jumping into something too quickly will just cause problems. Does that make sense?"

Pikachu nodded before curling up next to Ash to get some sleep. Ash looked at his Pokémon and spoke, "Okay, how many of you want to spend the night out here? We can go back to the Pokémon Center and sleep there, or we can stay here. I'll let you guys decide."

After talking for a few minutes, they all decided to sleep out in the forest once more. Ash nodded his head before leaning back and falling asleep.

**Chapter 5 is completed**

**The next chapter I will actually describe more of the battles. I wasn't really feeling too much like doing it as I was typing this, so I left most of the action out. The next will have at least one of Ash's battles as well as one of Max's, Paul's, and maybe Anabel as well. I probably won't write about any of Misty's in detail unless I get requests to do so.**

**Also, if the next chapter covers more than one day of battles, you will get to see Ash's surprising third opponent. I bet none of you can guess who it is.**

**Also, in the next couple of chapters I'm going to put more interaction between Ash and his other Pokémon. So far it has mostly focused on his Houndoom and Pikachu, but I don't want to neglect the others so I will get them involved in the story more as well.**

**Now, who should be the next person to figure out Ash's identity? I'm thinking Nando, but I haven't decided yet.**

**Also, I'm sorry if things start to feel rushed, if they are, let me know so I can slow it down a little bit. I'm trying not to go too slow and have the story drag on forever. That could get really boring. My goal is to cover at least one day with each chapter, but we'll see if that keeps up. **

**Now, like always, if you have anything to say to me with regards to my story, let me know in a review or PM. I appreciate the feedback and take it into consideration.**

**I also want to throw a shout out to FF8cerberus and korne-pokemon-luv. They both noticed an error I made in chapter three and pointed it out to me so I could fix it. Thank you and if anyone else spots any error, let me know so I can fix it. I try my best to edit before I publish, but I still miss some things.**

**Anyways, that is all for now, so until next time, don't forget that the world is flat and if you walk off the edge of it, there's no coming back.**

_**Hmmm, still no major changes. Another thing I'm considering is making all of the stories Ash tells be in the form of a flashback like I did with the Houndour/Pikachu story. If you want me to do that, let me know and I'll consider it.**_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	6. Chapter 6

_**Well here we go. I can promise changes in this chapter because I will not have May figuring out who Ash is. It's too early for that. She will probably find out in the second stage of the tournament. Anyways, let's get on with the editing.**_

**Chapter 6**

**Well, once again, it would seem that you have come back to read my next chapter. Welcome back and hopefully you enjoy it.**

**So, I have had several people comment on how quickly I have been updating and how much I have been typing. Let me just say that I am as impressed as you guys are at my speed with this. Anyways, I'm now at the point where I am publishing as I write, so I don't have extra chapters written to publish if I don't finish a chapter in a day. I'll try to update as often as I can, but the updates might drop to once or twice a week. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

-By the lake in the forest-

Ash woke early the next morning to the sounds of his Pokémon. He sat up and rubbed his eyes before looking around the clearing to see what the excitement was.

What he saw was a soaking wet Houndoom and a laughing Empoleon. As he watched, Houndoom proceeded to launch some flames at Empoleon, probably to get back it him for the dousing. Before the flames reached the penguin though, Porygon-Z swooped down and used psychic to control the flames and make designs with them. This frustrated Houndoom who tried to send a wave of dark energy towards Porygon-Z. This time, Porygon-Z launched Houndoom's flames at the dark energy ball, cancelling the attacks out and causing a small explosion and knocking Empoleon back.

Before things could escalate into a full out brawl between the three, Ash got up and walked over. "Good morning you guys, what exactly are you up to?"

The three Pokémon turned to look at their trainer before grinning. Ash got a bad feeling about what was going on and he tried to back away. Before he could get far though, Empoleon covered him in water that Porygon-Z instantly froze with an ice beam. Houndoom then melted enough of the ice so that Ash could breathe and move his head.

As he struggled to free himself from his icy confines, his other Pokémon came over to see what was going on. At the sight of their trainer frozen in a block of ice, they all fell over laughing. Pikachu then went over to Staraptor and whispered something in his ear. Staraptor got a mad glint in his eye before flying over to the block of ice and carving words into it with his beak.

Ash had no clue what Staraptor was doing, but when he finished, it just served to make all of his Pokémon laugh harder. Jolteon then decided to join in the fun of torturing Ash. She walked over and released a small, steady stream of electricity into the ice. The power was low enough to not cause any pain; instead, it struck the nerves in such a way as to cause a massive tickling sensation to spread over Ash's entire body.

For the next couple of minutes, Jolteon kept up this little trick, causing Ash to laugh and cry at the same time. As Jolteon stopped the flow of electricity, Lucario tensed and motioned for all the Pokémon to hide. Knowing that Lucario had sensed someone approaching, the Pokémon obliged and ran into the forest to watch everyone's reactions.

About a minute after the Pokémon had hidden themselves, Paul and Gary walked into the clearing. They took one look at Ash and fell over laughing. It took several minutes for the pair to calm down, but once they did, they just stood in front of Ash, admiring his prison. Finally, Paul spoke up. "Well Ash, I must say, this is some pretty impressive ice sculpting. I'm not sure which Pokémon you have that did this, but make sure to congratulate them for me."

Ash groaned, "Can you just set me free please? I'm getting a little cold here."

Gary grinned, "Well, you see, we simply came to wake you up as you asked us to. Now that we're here, we see that your Pokémon apparently did the waking up for us. Since that job is done, I think we'll be leaving now."

"Really? You're just going to leave me here at the mercy of my Pokémon? Can you at least tell me what was carved into the ice?"

Gary contemplated it before answering, "Well, it's simply just your Pokémon bragging about their most recent catch. It says, 'Look, we caught an Ash!'."

Ash sighed, "Great. Just what I wanted. To be frozen in a block of ice with my name on it. If you're not going to free me, at least get rid of my name."

Paul smirked, "Fine. Magmortar, come on out and melt the top layer of the ice."

As soon as the massive flaming Pokémon appeared, he sprayed a wave of fire over Ash's entire body, melting a layer of ice as well as barbequing his face. Ash groaned.

Paul returned his Pokémon before walking away. Before Gary left, he had one last thing to say, "So, Ash, which one of your girlfriends do you want us to send to save you?"

Ash glared at Gary, "I don't care who you send, just do it quickly."

Gary turned to leave before a thought struck him, "Hey Ash, I heard a rumor that you could use aura, why don't you just break out with that?"

As soon as Gary said that, Ash face-palmed himself with an aura infused hand. The hit hurt, but he figured he deserved it for not doing this earlier.

Gary laughed as he heard his friend break out of the ice before he continued on his way out of the forest.

Once Gary was gone and Ash had finished freeing himself, he turned towards the forest. "So, you guys want to play dirty, do you? Well in that case I'm just going to have to pull out all the stops."

With that, Ash charged into the forest and immediately tackled Empoleon to the ground. For the next half hour, Ash and his Pokémon proceeded to wrestle with each other and goof off. When they finally finished, Ash was sweaty and exhausted, yet somehow wide-awake. His Pokémon were all panting, but seemed to be enjoying themselves. Every single one of them had a grin on their face.

Ash looked at the sky and saw that the sun wasn't too far into its daily trek, so he figured he had time to go for a swim before meeting up with everyone else. He quickly stripped down to his boxers and jumped into the lake. Empoleon followed him in and proceeded to chase his though the water.

Ash groaned, "Haven't you harassed me enough for one morning? Can't I get a little bit of peace before I have to go back into civilization?"

Empoleon proceeded to shake his head and shoot a stream of water at Ash. Ash sighed as he climbed out of the lake, "Hey Houndoom, do you mind drying me off?"

Houndoom obediently walked over and blasted a stream of fire near Ash to quickly dry him. Once Ash got dressed again, he returned his Pokémon and began heading towards the Pokémon Center.

As he walked through the forest, he heard the sounds of someone walking towards him. He glanced up and saw Anabel. "Hey Anabel, what are you doing out here?"

She looked up and saw Ash. "Well, I heard from Gary that your Pokémon had you trapped in a block of ice and that you might need some help. He said you broke free, but he wasn't sure if your Pokémon were done messing with you. When you didn't show up for a little while, I decided to see if you needed any help."

Ash looked at Houndoom and then at Pikachu before smirking, "Well, they got me pretty good when I woke up, but once I got free of the ice, I got them back pretty good. When it comes to basic wrestling, none of them can beat me. Well, one of them can, but that's not important because he wasn't being difficult."

Anabel looked at Ash, "You wrestle with your Pokémon? Isn't that a little dangerous?"

Ash shrugged, "I guess, but not really. We don't do anything too crazy. It's just friendly stuff. When I train them individually I can be a little crazy, but using my aura powers I can protect myself mostly."

"You have aura powers?" Anabel asked him.

"Oh yeah, I guess I never mentioned them to you. Well, when I first met you I didn't know about them. As for this tournament, I'm keeping them under wraps for the time being. If I need them later on, I want it to be a surprise."

Anabel nodded, "Well, you better hurry and go meet up with everyone, they're all eating breakfast before going to Max's battle."

Ash nodded, "Okay. What about you? Are you coming?"

She shrugged, "I guess so. It's either that or wander around alone."

"Really? Aren't you friends with the other Frontier Brains?"

"Well, kind of," Anabel said. "I mean, we all like and respect each other, but none of them are really close to my age except for Greta. Lucy is around the same age as Brock, but other than that, they are all old people. As much as I like them all, they aren't really that much fun to hang out with."

Ash nodded, "I guess that makes sense. Well, regardless, you are always welcome to hang out with us, so come on."

Anabel smiled as the pair made their way to the Pokémon Center. Upon arrival, Gary immediately looked at the duo and smirked, "Well look who decided to show up. What have you two been up to that has kept you away for so long?"

Immediately, a blush rose on both of their faces, prompting a glare from May. Ash recovered first, "Nothing at all. I was walking here after, ah, _playing_ with my Pokémon. Along the way I bumped into Anabel. We talked as we came here and that is all that happened."

May then looked at Ash, "Well then Five, do you mind walking with me after breakfast on the way to Max's battle?"

Ash silently groaned as he noticed Anabel begin glaring at May. May just smirked at the purple-haired young lady and then smiled at Ash. Ash shrugged, "I suppose I can. Now, how about some breakfast?"

As Ash tried to change the subject to something that didn't involve who got to spend time with him, he noticed Gary, Paul, and Brock were all sending him smirks and trying to hide their laughter. Misty and Dawn were busy watching the drama and having a quiet conversation regarding the competition for the mysterious figure while Max simply sat there eating his breakfast, completely oblivious to what was going on around him.

As Ash sat down to eat, he turned to look at Max, "So, Max, are you ready for your battle today? You have to battle on the water field, do you have a plan thought out yet?"

Max looked up and nodded, "Yeah, since it's a water field, Crawdaunt should do pretty well on it. I'm also going to use Swellow who doesn't need land in order to battle. He can stay up in the air out of range of an opponents water Pokémon and fight well from there. As for my third Pokémon, I haven't decided yet. Do you have any suggestions?"

Ash shrugged, "Just do whatever you feel the most comfortable with. Also remember that sometimes relying too much on an advantage can lead to a disadvantage."

Max nodded as he continued eating, "Yeah, I suppose, but I'm still sticking with my plan."

Ash nodded, "Of course. Confidence is a good thing to have. As long as you believe in yourself and your Pokémon, you will be able to perform at your best. By giving your best in this tournament, you will find your strength's and weaknesses, thus allowing you to become an even better trainer."

"You have some pretty good advice," Brock stated. "I take it you learned all of this from personal experience?"

Ash nodded, "Yeah. Friendly advice I was given at one point or another that I never really appreciated until now. With all of my experience, I understand what people meant with this kind of advice and it has helped me analyze my performances from my past to figure out what I need to do to improve."

Misty looked at Ash, "Well Five, what do you need to improve on?"

Before Ash could answer, Paul cut in, "He's too nice. If his Houndoom had battled at full power yesterday from the beginning, he would have taken out Electivire without getting hit at all. Since he was holding back a little to avoid possibly hurting his opponent, he allowed his own Pokémon to take some damage."

Ash sighed, "Well, based on the power of her previous Pokémon, I didn't want to possibly hurt Electivire by going overboard. If I were battling you, I wouldn't even think about holding anything back. I'll do to all of your Pokémon what I did to your Ursaring a week ago."

Paul smirked, "Of course you would. Except that my Pokémon would be able to take the hit and keep fighting. Just because you defeated my tired Ursaring doesn't mean you stand a chance against me in battle."

"Well Paul, I hope we get to battle in this tournament then so we can settle this debate for good," Ash announced with an air of confidence. He then turned to look around the table, "Anyone know where Nando is? He seemed like he knew you guys and you all seemed to like him, is there any reason he doesn't hang around more?"

Dawn looked at Ash, "Well Five, like you, Nando kind of does his own thing. He's cool and all, but he never seems to stay put for very long. He's always wandering around playing music."

Ash nodded, "Well he's lucky. You guys harass me to spend time with you all but you allow the mysterious Pokémon bard to do whatever he wants. Seems fair."

Dawn glared at Ash, "Are you saying that you don't like us? That you want us to leave you alone? Well excuse me for trying to be your friend, next time I guess I won't bother."

Ash glanced around nervously from the coordinator's little outburst and noticed that his friends seemed to be trying to hold in laughter. Paul just smirked at him. Finally, Ash sighed, "Sorry Dawn. I didn't mean to offend you. I like being your friend and hanging out with you all, so please don't be mad."

When Ash looked around, he saw Paul grinning at him with a rather scary look. When he turned his gaze to Dawn, he saw her smirking at him, "Well Five, if you really are sorry, then you have to do something to make it up to me."

Ash sighed, "Fine. What do I need to do?"

Now Dawn had an almost evil grin while Paul was trying to contain his laughter and failing. Ash had a feeling that Paul had helped Dawn plan this little stunt in order to trap him.

Finally, Dawn spoke up, "Well, that's simple. Tomorrow when you have a few free hours, you have to go shopping with us all. No backing out of it this time. It will just be you, me, Misty, May, and Anabel."

Ash paled at the request as his eyes widened to massive size. "N- n-no. Please no. Anything but that, " As pleaded.

Dawn shook her head, "Nope, you have to do it whether you like it or not. However, if you want, I can let you go alone with just you, May, and Anabel. It's your choice."

Ash groaned. He had been trapped. He could go shopping with the four girl's and die of overexertion, or he could go shopping with two girls who liked him and to a certain extent he liked as well. They would probably spend the whole time fighting with each other and torture him.

He looked at Paul and saw the guy grinning wickedly at him, "Well Five, which are you going to choose?" Paul asked him. "You going to go shopping with all the girl's or just your two girlfriends?"

Ash glared at him, "You set this whole thing up. I can't believe you Paul. I will get you back for this but fine, I'll go with just May and Anabel. Happy?"

Paul smirked at Ash while Dawn grinned, "Very. I'll make sure to keep an eye on that little trip, it's bound to be entertaining."

Ash groaned, "Well, if we're all done torturing me, can we get on to Max's match? It starts in half an hour."

May smiled at Ash, "Of course we can Five. You promised to walk me there, so lets go and take a walk."

Although Ash found himself smiling at the prospect of walking May to the battle and getting a chance to talk with her alone, he couldn't help feel he would rather it was Anabel he was walking with. He also didn't fail to notice the angry glare that Anabel sent towards May.

With a sigh, Ash stood up from the table, "Well guys, I guess I'll see you all at the battle."

As Ash made his way out of the Pokémon Center, May followed close behind. Once they had left and started walking, May turned to Ash, "So, Five, can you tell me anything about yourself? I know you're trying to be all secretive, but I really am curious as to what exactly you have done so far in your life."

Ash sighed, he didn't want to be rude, but at the same time, he wanted to wait a little longer before letting May know who he was. If she found out now, she would just cause a scene and attract unnecessary attention. Eventually, he turned to look at May, "Right now, I would rather not talk about my past. There are happy moments in it that helped shape me as a trainer and a person, but there are also the more recent not so happy moments that have defined me as well. I will however promise you that I will tell you about my past by the end of this tournament."

May sighed, "I suppose, but I want to get to know you more. I feel like you have a connection with Paul and Anabel because they're trainers, you have a connection with Brock because he's helping to heal Pikachu, and you have a connection with Gary for some reason I'm not so sure about. You even seem to have connected with my brother as a mentor of sorts for him. I can't help but feel a little jealous and want to get to know you better."

Ash didn't fail to realize that all of the people she mentioned, except for Max, knew who he really was. He figured that was why they seemed to connect with him better than May could. That made him feel guilty about hiding his identity. He had initially been planning on surprising them all at some point near the end of the tournament, but instead his group of friends had found him and befriended him as Five. Over the past week, many of them had figured out who he was because of this.

After pondering these thoughts for a few minutes he finally spoke up, "I think to a certain degree you are right about that, but I think there is also something more to it. Maybe if you tell me more about you though, I can relate to it and we can talk that way."

May smiled, "I suppose that works. Well, as you know, I'm a coordinator. I have been taking part in contests for five years. I started my journey in Hoenn and branched out to other regions over the years."

Ash nodded, "That makes sense. I started my journey in my home region and after a year, began travelling in other regions to compete."

"Really? Where did you start?" May asked him.

Ash shrugged, "Kanto. Born and raised. The bulk of my memories, good and bad, are from there. I have also been through Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh though. They're all wonderful regions, but with Kanto being my home, it has always been my favorite."

May looked at Ash, "Well, where in Kanto are you from? Also, since you spend so much time in Kanto, have you ever met a guy named Ash?"

Before Ash could respond to that though, he saw the arena in front of him. He also saw the Pokémon bard Nando.

Nando had heard the question and decided to join the conversation, "Well, according to the trainer information I've been able to find, it says that Five is from Viridian City. As for Ash, I too am curious as to whether you've met him or not."

Ash let out a sigh of relief, Nando had taken the pressure off if him for the time being, allowing him to think clearly and offer a better response, "No, I've never met Ash before. I've heard mention of him several times from your friends though, as well as hearing about him competing in the different Pokémon Leagues."

May sighed, "Oh well. I was hoping he would be here, but I guess I'll just have to keep looking. Hey Nando, have you heard anything about Ash these past several years?"

With a shake of his head, Nando responded. "Alas, I have heard nothing of our friend. It is a shame, but I'm sure he'll show up soon. Now, where were you two headed?

Ash looked and Nando and smiled, "Well, Max battles on the water field and we were heading to his battle to support him."

With that, the group of three entered the arena and found their seats.

A few minutes after the three had gotten their seats, the rest of their group walked in. Dawn looked at May and Ash before speaking up, "So, what happened on your walk over? Anything exciting?" She punctuated the last question with an eyebrow wiggle.

When May blushed, Anabel glared and Ash groaned. "Nothing happened. We talked a little about our journey's but that's all. We ran into Nando and are now here to support Max during his battle. Now come on, the battles about to start."

Sure enough, at that moment the two battlers walked onto the field and exchanged greetings. They then took their places and the battle began.

Max faced his opponent, a young boy not much older than himself, and threw out a pokeball. In a flash of light, a Crawdaunt appeared in the water and began swimming around. His opponent followed suit and sent out a Lumineon.

The water field now held two water Pokémon, ready to do battle and claim superiority of the waters. The field was a giant pool with a large platform in the middle. Scattered throughout the water were several smaller platforms, capable of holding a single Pokémon. The two Pokémon ignored the platforms, as that was not their natural home. Both Pokémon were proud water types who were ready to stake their claim to this pool of water.

Deciding the stare-down had gone on long enough, Max called out his command, "Crawdaunt, use taunt and then follow it up with swift!"

Obediently, the lobster began taunting his opponent. As the spectators watched, the fish grew more and more incensed at this and prepared to launch his own attacks right back.

Lumineon's trainer, who had been trying to call for a rainy day attack, grew frustrated at his Pokémon's inability to launch said attack. Growing angry at the strategy, he called out, "Lumineon, block the swift with water pulse and follow it up with silver wind!"

As the swift and water pulse collided under the water, it created a shockwave in the pool that pushed both Pokémon back and sprayed water over the trainers.

While his opponent was distracted with the drenching, Max called out, "Dodge the silver wind and follow up with a giga impact!"

As commanded, Crawdaunt swiftly evaded the attack before forming a purple glow and launching himself full speed at his opponent. The opposing trainer finally shook himself out of shock from the drenching and watched as Crawdaunt slammed into his Lumineon.

The trainer called out, "Lumineon! Are you okay? Please get up and keep fighting!"

Max watched this, but decided to finish before Lumineon recovered enough to defend itself. He looked at Crawdaunt and called out, "Crawdaunt, finish this with Guillotine."

Crawdaunt nodded his head before allowing both if his pincers to glow white and charging his opponent once more. Lumineon had finally recovered from the earlier hit he had taken, but wasn't quite fast enough. He looked up in time to be hit by Crawdaunt's powerful attack.

The shock from the attack once more caused the water field to explode. When the water finally calmed down, Lumineon could be seen floating on the surface of the water, no longer capable of battling.

The judge raised a flag, "Lumineon is unable to battle, Crawdaunt wins this round."

The trainer recalled his Pokémon before sending out his next one. "Lanturn, lets light up this battle!"

In the water, a blue fish appeared. It had yellow surrounding its eyes like a mask, as well as yellow on the bottom of its tail fin and yellow balls on the antenna on its head. The fish looked around the water and saw Crawdaunt celebrating his earlier victory.

Max looked at his opponent, "Well, you can go first this time."

The trainer nodded, "Lanturn, use thunderbolt on Crawdaunt. Then follow it up with signal beam."

Instantly, the antenna on Lanturn's head began sparking with electricity. The Pokémon then launched it at Crawdaunt, who was barely able to avoid it. As the bolt was dodged, another wave of energy was sent directly at him. This one was a rainbow colored one that landed a direct hit.

Crawdaunt cried out in pain at being hit with the super effective bug type attack. Max watched this happen before retaliating, "Crawdaunt, use toxic in the water and then jump onto a platform."

Crawdaunt obeyed the command, letting massive amounts of toxin's be released from his claws as he jumped onto the center of the large platform. When the attack was done, the water was murky with the purple poison.

Max couldn't see the Lanturn, which he knew would make it hard to battle, but he also knew there was no avoiding the toxic mess the water had become. Lanturn wouldn't be able to last for long in the poison soup that had been created.

The opposing trainer watched in horror as he saw his Pokémon get badly poisoned. There was no way this water would be safe for any Pokémon for the remainder of this battle. He knew his Lanturn wouldn't last much longer, but he wanted to make sure Crawdaunt had been defeated before losing Lanturn.

He looked into the water and called out, "Lanturn, Crawdaunt can't enter the water, since he can't dodge, use a full power thunder on the field."

For several seconds, nothing happened. Then, a yellow glow could be seen through the murky purple water and Lanturn was seen jumping high into the air. Once at the peak of his jump, he released a massive bolt of electricity down upon the field, lighting up the entire arena as well as electrocuting the Crawdaunt that had no where to hide.

When the attack was over, Crawdaunt fell to the ground unconscious while Lanturn simply returned into the poisoned water. The judge raised a flag and announced the end of the round.

Max recalled his fallen Pokémon, "Good job buddy, you did your best and that should make this our victory. Take a good rest while the rest of us finish this battle up." Max then reached to his belt and grabbed another Pokeball. He threw the ball and called out, "Grovyle, lets finish this battle!"

In a flash of red light, Grovyle appeared and took up position on the center platform. Max looked at his Pokémon and spoke, "Keep on guard and don't let the water touch you. Stay on your toes and avoid getting poisoned."

Grovyle nodded and began scanning the water for any signs of movement. As he looked, Lanturn stayed below the surface of the water, suffering from the poison as well as looking for a good time to shoot the poison at his new foe.

The opposing trainer called out, "Lanturn, swim around and launch a bubblebeam in every direction, make sure Grovyle has nowhere to hide from the water."

As the water began to erupt onto the platform, Max called out, "Grovyle, dodge with agility, jump to the other platforms and avoid the water!"

Obediently, Grovyle complied and began jumping from one platform to another, being careful to not let the water land on him. When the barrage of bubbles and poisoned water stopped, Max smirked at his opponent, "Nice try, but Grovyle is too fast to be hit by that attack."

Up in the stands, Ash groaned. May looked at him, "What was that for? Grovyle clearly dodged all the water, Max did a good job."

Ash sighed, "No. You're wrong. The purpose of that attack wasn't to actually hit Grovyle, it was to cover the platform in poisoned water. As Grovyle is standing there, his body is absorbing the toxic and getting badly poisoned. It was a simple distraction ploy and Max fell for it."

Sure enough, down on the field Grovyle fell to one knee. Max looked at this in shock while his opponent was now the one smirking, "Nice try Max, but you didn't avoid the all the water, just the obvious water. My plan worked to perfection."

Max groaned as understanding came to him. He looked at Grovyle, "Sorry buddy, it seems I messed up. Well, regardless, use bullet seed on the water to try and take down Lanturn faster, time is of the essence now."

Grovyle complied by launching a barrage of seeds into the water where Lanturn was trying to hide. Unfortunately for the fish, Grovyle was an expert at finding hidden enemies. After the attack ended, Lanturn floated up to the surface of the water.

The judge raised a flag, "Lanturn is unable to battle, the winner is Grovyle."

The opposing trainer recalled his Pokémon, "Good work Lanturn, I think it's about time I ended this battle." He then grabbed a different pokeball and released it. "Blastoise, take the field and clean off the platforms with a hydro pump!"

As the hydro pump cleaned off the field, it also surprised Grovyle and knocked him into the water, doing a little damage and worsening the poison.

Max immediately called out, "Grovyle! Get back onto the platform and attack Blastoise with leaf blade!"

Immediately, the wood gecko jumped onto the platform and extended the leaves on his forearms. The leaves began to glow green and extended as he charged at the large turtle opposing him.

The opposing trainer called out, "Blastoise, block it with withdraw and then finish Grovyle with ice beam!"

Blastoise immediately pulled his body into his shell, greatly weakening the powerful attack as it hit him. Once the attack was done, Blastoise stuck his head out and launched an ice beam that landed a direct hit on Grovyle, ending the battle.

The judge raised his flag, "Grovyle is unable to battle, Blastoise is the winner."

Max sighed as he recalled his Pokémon, "Good job Grovyle, I promise that we'll win this battle, now get a good rest." He then reached down and brought forth another pokeball. "Swellow, take to the skies and finish this battle!" The young boy cried out as his Pokémon was released.

As the blue bird with white and red markings on it appeared, he flew around the battlefield and took in the sight of it. He immediately saw the poisoned water and knew that would serve to limit his opponent. He then saw that his opponent was a giant turtle standing on a platform. He knew that meant the turtle wouldn't be able to move well due to the inability to safely enter the water. Swellow knew this would be a challenging battle, but if his advantages were played properly, he should be able to get the win without too much trouble.

After completing a few laps around the field, Max called out to him, "Swellow, fly high and use focus energy!"

Swellow immediately took to the higher skies and began concentrating his energy to gain focus and power. The opposing trainer could only watch as Swellow charged himself outside of Blastoise's range.

Once Swellow had completed his move, Max called out, "Now, agility, double team, and aerial ace."

Instantly, Swellow began flying even faster and created several afterimage copies of himself. Once the preparation was completed, Swellow and his 15 image clones flew down at astounding speeds towards Blastoise.

Blastoise's trainer called out, "Blastoise, protect!"

The trainer wasn't sure how to deal with this situation, so while he thought, he tried to do his best to protect Blastoise from taking unnecessary damage.

As Blastoise created a green energy field to protect himself from damage, Max called out, "Don't let up Swellow, you know what to do!"

This confused the other trainer, but then he saw what was happening. Swellow and his copies were bombarding Blastoise from one side, and while he wasn't taking any damage, he was being pushed towards the edge of the platform. The trainer called out, "Blastoise, hurry and use rapid spin to get back to the center of the platform!"

Unfortunately, it was too late for that. As Blastoise began his spin, he had already fallen into the water. Although he didn't spend much time in it, it was enough to poison him.

Max grinned, "Good work Swellow. You did it, with Blastoise poisoned, it's only a matter of time before we win this!"

Swellow cried out in joy as he continued to circle the battlefield. The other trainer watched in horror as his Pokémon began having his health sapped by the poison. In a last-ditch effort to salvage the match, he called out, "Blastoise, jump in the water and launch a toxic hydro pump at Swellow!"

Obediently, Blastoise complied and began firing powerful streams of toxic water at Swellow. Max saw the situation and called out, "Swellow, fly higher and avoid the water!"

Swellow obeyed and after a few minutes of futile effort, Blastoise fainted. The judge raised his flag, "Blastoise is unable to battle, the winner is Swellow. This preliminary match goes to Max Maple of Hoenn."

The crowd erupted in cheers for Max as he recalled his Pokémon. He then shook his opponents hand once more before walking out of the stadium.

Up in the stands, Max's friends watched the end of the battle. Ash smirked at the strategy used at the end of the battle. It was hardly a fair strategy, but it was enough for the win.

Dawn turned to Ash, "I didn't really like the way he ended the battle. He didn't fight, he just waited for Blastoise to faint, doesn't that seem a little cheap to you?"

While some of the group nodded their heads, Ash shook his. "No. It was strategy. Although it wasn't exciting like a fight of attacks going back and forth, it served its purpose and got Max the win. Not all battles are pretty and fair. However, Max did the right thing. Many trainers would have continued attacking after poisoning Blastoise, but Max didn't because he knew that if he did, it would just open up an opportunity for his opponent to get back into the battle. By staying out of Blastoise's range, he ended the battle and protected his Pokémon. Not a pretty strategy, but definitely an effective one."

Dawn sighed, "I suppose, but that doesn't mean I liked seeing it."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, it isn't the prettiest sight to behold, it also isn't very much fun giving the command to do it, but if all you're looking for is a win and you don't care about how ugly the win is, then it is a perfectly reasonable strategy."

As the group made its way out of the arena, people continued talking about the battle. As soon as Max saw them though, he ran up to Ash, "Hey Five, what did you think of my battle?"

Ash groaned, "Max, do you really need my opinion on everything you do in battle?"

Max shrugged, "Well, you are an incredible trainer, so any insight you have is bound to be useful."

Heaving a sigh, Ash spoke, "I guess. Well, You started out great. You defeated Lumineon by taking advantage of a distracted opponent. When he sent in a Pokémon with an advantage over you, you retaliated by poisoning the water and taking away that advantage. Since Crawdaunt could fight on land as well as in the water, losing the water wasn't the end of the world for you. Once you sent out Grovyle though, you got a little cocky. You got so caught up in your advantage, you failed to notice your opponent's plan and fell right into it, allowing your Grovyle to get badly poisoned.

"After that, you picked yourself up and won that round, but due to the poison, you lost Grovyle right after the next round started. When you sent out Swellow, you executed your plan to perfection. You didn't tell too much of it, so your opponent couldn't see what you were doing until it was too late. After that, you didn't get cocky again and instead stuck with your advantage and waited out the battle. Overall, you did pretty good, now all that remains to be seen is how far this will take you."

Max nodded his head, "Thanks. And yeah, I did mess up with letting Grovyle get poisoned, but in the end everything worked out and I got the win."

Brock then walked over, "Well Max, that was an impressive battle. Now, what do you say we all go get some lunch?"

Everyone agreed to that and the group began walking away to eat before the rest of the days battles.

-1:00 arena 3-

"Wow Misty," Max exclaimed, "That was a great battle. I never knew you were so skilled outside of water fields."

Misty shrugged, "Well Max, I'm a water Pokémon master. That means I have to be able to bring out their full potential regardless of where I'm battling."

Ash shrugged, "Well, that might be true, but you'd make it a lot farther in this tournament if you used more kinds of Pokémon. By sticking solely with water types, you make it really easy to fight you."

Misty glared at Ash, "Well Five, I didn't ask for your opinion now did I? Besides, look at Wallace, he only uses water types and he's the champion of the Hoenn region. Since I'm the best water Pokémon master in the world, that means I'm better than Wallace and therefore will do perfectly fine in this tournament. I might even win the whole thing." She then stuck her tongue out at Ash causing him to look at her funny.

"Well, I can't say you're lacking in confidence," Ash mumbled. "Now, I'm going to go prepare for my battle in an hour, I'll see you guys later." With that, Ash walked off with Houndoom at his side.

The group watched as he walked away before Anabel spoke up, "Does he need to be away from people in order to prepare for his battle?"

May smirked at her, "Well, if you knew him well enough you would understand. You see, he isn't used to being around people so much, so he needs a break from it every now and then to relax himself and calm down."

Paul smirked at the little spat that was taking place while Gary decided to speak up, "Now May, calm down. There's no need to be so rude about it. We're all friends here and even if both of you want to be more than that with Five, that is still no excuse for fighting like this."

Gary's comment made both of the girls flush and the rest of the group to laugh. Finally Max spoke up, "May, what is with you and falling in love with my mentor? First it was Ash and now it's Five. Is this ever going to end?"

May glared at her brother before responding, "Max, I'm not in love with Five. He's just a friend."

That made Anabel smile, "Well May, I'm glad you feel that way, because that means that Five is mine."

In order to prevent a full-fledged fight from breaking out, the group split in two with each half taking a different one of the girls with them.

An hour later, the two groups met up once again in front of arena 1, where Ash would be having his next battle. As the group took their seats, they watched as the two competitors took the field.

As Ash walked onto the field, he looked at his opponent. They man was buff and tall. He had short brown hair and looked like he did nothing except work out. The two walked to the middle of the grass field and shook hands.

The man grinned at Ash, "I heard you had an impressive performance in your first battle, only using that little mutt of yours to knock out your opponent. Well, let me just tell you that its going to take a lot more than your little half-breed there to take me down."

As he listened to his opponent insult and talk down to him, Ash smirked. He glanced at his truly pissed off Pokémon before speaking to him, "Well Houndoom, you heard the man. He's a big tough guy that doesn't want us to hold back anything. How about you and me show this guy a little taste of our power?"

Houndoom grinned at his trainer before baring his fangs at his opponent. Ash then looked at the man, "You know, you would have been much better off not insulting Houndoom. He isn't really people friendly so I've been working really hard to keep him from attacking anyone who looks at me funny. However, seeing as you've insulted him, I see no need to restrain him from embarrassing you in this battle. I wish you the best of luck; Arceus knows your going to need it."

Before his opponent could respond, Ash turned around and walked to the trainer box. He looked down at Houndoom, "We're going to do this one with no commands. Got that? You just do what you want and win this battle while I watch."

Houndoom grinned at his trainer before taking his place on the field.

The judge looked at the two trainers as well as the Houndoom who was already on the field. He looked at Ash, "You know, you don't have to release your Pokémon until the battle begins. Doing this will give your opponent a chance to get an immediate advantage by seeing your Pokémon."

Ash shrugged, "None of his Pokémon could take down Houndoom. Type advantages mean nothing to us, now if you don't mind, can we start this battle?"

The judge shrugged, "Okay, just wanted to make sure you knew." He then raised his flag, "The second preliminary battle between Five of Kanto and Jeff Ogden from Hoenn will now begin. This will be a three-on-three battle with no time limit. Once one trainer is out of usable Pokémon, the battle will be over. Begin." With that, he swung his flag down, announcing the start of the battle.

Jeff immediately grabbed a pokeball and tossed it onto the field. "Hippowdon, take the field."

Ash smirked as the Pokémon appeared and a sandstorm started up. He then turned around ignoring the battlefield and sat down.

His opponent and the battle judge stared at him in shock for several moments before Jeff got pissed at this display. "Hey buddy, if you're not going to take this battle seriously, I'm going to end it before you can even turn around."

Up in the stands, Ash's friends were looking at him funny. May spoke up, "What is he doing? How is he going to battle if he's not even watching?"

Anabel looked at her, "Well he's not going to battle, Houndoom is. If I had to guess, based on what I know about Five I would say his opponent insulted Houndoom before the battle began. As a way to let his Pokémon defend his pride, he's allowing Houndoom to do this battle alone. This is also going to serve as a way for him to intimidate any future opponents he has. If this works, which I'm sure it will, no one will want to face him. His intimidation factor will soar and he will begin building a reputation as a favorite to win the tournament."

"Pff, he's just showing off," Paul said. "He thinks he's all that so he's letting his ego get to him. Just ignore the theatrics and watch the battle."

Back on the battlefield, Jeff called out, "Hippowdon, end this battle now with earthquake."

Before Hippowdon could even begin the attack though, Houndoom was already standing behind the behemoth with his mouth open. Instantly, the Pokémon was engulfed in the most intense flames that Houndoom could produce. Jeff watched in amazement as his powerful hippo took the full force of a point blank overheat attack at a power level he had never seen before.

As soon as the attack ended, Hippowdon fell to the ground unconscious. Without turning around, Ash spoke up, "Good job Houndoom. One down, two to go."

Just like in his first battle, after such a quick KO, the crowd was silent. They looked on in awe at the trainer who didn't appear to be watching the battle as well as his powerful Pokémon that had taken down a behemoth like Hippowdon in a single attack.

With his group of friends, Paul smirked, "Well there you have it. The power he held back in his last battle was just unleashed. That's the attack that defeated my Ursaring. His Houndoom is no pushover and not something to be underestimated. This Jeff guy doesn't stand a chance, especially if he made Houndoom angry. The last time someone pissed off Five and his Pokémon, well, lets just say some bad things happened to the people."

Those that knew what Paul was talking about nodded while the rest just looked confused. "What are you talking about Paul?" Dawn asked him. "Who else made him mad? What happened?"

Paul just looked down at the battlefield, "As much as I would like to tell you the answer to that question, I'm afraid I can't. That would be Five's story to tell. Now, lets watch Houndoom destroy two more Pokémon."

On the battlefield, Jeff looked at the judge, "Ref, isn't it against the rules to attack without a command from the trainer?"

The judge shook his head, "There is no rule against that. Besides, it's also possible he gave silent commands or telepathic commands. Regardless of how it happened, no rules were broken. Send out your next Pokémon or forfeit the match."

Jeff grunted as he recalled his fallen Pokémon. "I might have underestimated you a little, but I promise that your mutt isn't going to make it past my next Pokémon."

An audible groan could be heard from across the battlefield, "Jeff, every time you insult my Houndoom, you're just making your punishment worse. If you would have just apologized, Houndoom might have taken a little pity on you, but at this point, you're screwed. Houndoom, have fun finishing this guy off, I think I'm going to take a nap."

Those words served to anger Jeff even more, "That's it!" He yelled. "I didn't want to use this guy until later, but you have pushed me too far. I'm going to destroy you and that pathetic dog of yours." He then grabbed a ball from his belt and threw it. "Garchomp, destroy this pathetic trainer and show him true power!"

Ash let out an audible fake snore at this and Houndoom just puffed a little smoke out of his nostrils.

Jeff's face went red and then purple with anger, "Garchomp, use dragon rush to end this round!"

Instantly, Garchomp was surrounded with an aura of power and began to charge at his opponent at full speed. Houndoom saw this and braced himself for impact. He crouched down and pushed his horns forward as Garchomp charged.

Jeff saw this and began laughing, "Pathetic mutt, you think you can stop my Garchomp's dragon rush with your head? That's hilarious; no one has ever withstood this attack before."

Up in the stands, Paul smirked, "This guy is a piece of work. He has no idea who he's dealing with and with all these insults; he's just hurting himself. If that overheat didn't show him how powerful Houndoom is, this certainly will. I guess Five wanted to finally show the world just how powerful he is."

Brock looked at Paul, "Do you really think Houndoom can withstand this attack? That Garchomp looks pretty powerful."

Paul grinned, "Ha, that Garchomp may be powerful, but it's nowhere close to Houndoom's level. Five and his Pokémon are truly on the level of a champion."

Down on the field, Garchomp made contact with Houndoom's head and tried to push the hellhound back. Houndoom merely grunted and pushed as well. After about ten seconds, Garchomp's attack wore off and Houndoom easily overpowered the dragon. With one final push, the dragon was sent back towards his trainer who was simply staring at Houndoom in shock and fear.

Houndoom then opened his mouth and produced another blast of flames like what he had used to defeat Hippowdon. The flames made contact with Garchomp, burning the mighty beast into unconsciousness.

The judge looked at Houndoom and then Garchomp in awe before raising a flag, "Garchomp is unable to battle, the winner of this match is Houndoom." After a minute had passed and no new Pokémon appeared on the field, the judge looked over at Jeff, "Jeff, if you don't send out another Pokémon, you will forfeit the match."

Jeff just looked at Houndoom in fear once more before speaking up, "There is no way I can defeat that Houndoom. I forfeit this match and apologize for insulting you Houndoom."

Houndoom merely grunted before walking over to Ash and nudging him. Ash looked at his dog and smiled, "Good job Houndoom. You showed that guy how tough you are. I don't think he's ever going to be insulting you again."

The judge looked at the field and raised his flag, "Jeff has surrendered. The victor of this match is Five and his Houndoom."

The announcement brought the crowd back to reality and it immediately broke out in cheers for Five and his mighty Houndoom.

Up in the crowd, Paul smirked, "Well, it would seem that Five has finally shown the people of this tournament his power. I guess that means if I want to keep up, I should show mine as well. Anyways, I'm out. I'll see you guys later."

The rest of the group was still staring in awe at the battlefield. Finally seeming to realize what was going on, Brock spoke up, "Well guys, that was a fascinating battle. I think we also learned not to insult Five or his Pokémon."

The others nodded their heads numbly before Max spoke up, "I'm really glad he didn't do that when I battled him. He would have won instantly and I wouldn't have learned anything at all. Now I'm just going to have to keep working and hope I don't have to face him in this tournament. Now, lets go meet up with Five and congratulate him on his battle."

As the group walked off, another man in the crowd looked at the battlefield in approval. He was a short man with white hair and a white beard. He wore a baseball hat backwards and watched from the VIP box at the top of the stadium. After watching the battle, he stood up and starting muttering to himself, "My, that boy sure has grown since I first met him and he helped run the Flame of Moltres all those years ago. He thinks he can hide under his fake name, but I recognize that boy with the Pikachu on his shoulder. I think I'll have the computers give that boy a real test for his next battle so I can see how far he really has come. It should also draw quite a bit of attention to him and help to get him the recognition he deserves." With that, the old man walked off to begin planning for the next round of preliminary battles.

Outside the arena, Ash was trying to fight his way through the crowd. After his impressive victory, he had been swarmed as soon as he walked off the field. Everyone suddenly wanted to be his best friend, to hear his life story, to know his secrets. Having a tired Houndoom who wasn't fond of people to begin with was only making matters worse.

Finally, he decided to go with plan B. He knew it would draw more attention to himself, but he also knew it would get him away from the crowd before Houndoom snapped. Or before he snapped. Even he was having a hard time dealing with all the people.

With a sigh, he reached his arms out in front of him and concentrated. After a few seconds, a barrier appeared between him and the crowd that was holding him back. With a little more effort, he was able to force aside the crowd and walk through the small pathway he had created using his aura powers.

As he expected, this show of power got the people even more interested in him. It also got him away from the people. Before they could recover from their shock, Ash had already made it into the forest. As quickly as he could, he ran to his little clearing by the lake. As soon as he reached it, he flopped himself on the ground and began to calm down. Houndoom lay down next to him while Pikachu took a seat on his stomach.

After he had regained his breathe and calmed down, he turned to look at Houndoom. "Good job out there. You fought well in battle and you didn't attack any of the people that crowded you after it. On the other hand, it might be a good idea for us to stay out of sight for a little bit. With as many trainers as there are in this tournament, it shouldn't take too long for someone else to get everyone's attention."

Houndoom barked his response and Ash smiled. "Yes Houndoom. I saw you use overheat twice without losing any power. I know you've been working at being able to do that for a while now and seeing you do it in battle was impressive. At the same time though, I can see how much it tired you out. You know as well as I do that overheat is supposed to get weaker every time in order to prevent you from exhausting yourself. Breaking that barrier is great for you, but you still have some work to do if you want to be able to do that in longer, more challenging battles."

Ash then reached down to his waist and released his other Pokémon from their balls. He looked at them all and spoke, "As you guys know, I am planning on only using Houndoom for the first stage of this tournament, however, I can't help but feel that something is coming up that Houndoom alone will be able to handle. When the time comes, you all need to be ready, so do some training or meditate, or do something to prepare yourselves for battle."

With cheers of approval at the news, the rest of Ash's Pokémon began preparing themselves for a possible battle. Ash then resumed his relaxation by the lake. As he lay there, he felt Jolteon join him and lay down at his side as well. He smiled at the electric cat-like Pokémon that for some reason had taken an electric mouse for a father. "Hey Jolteon, how are you doing?"

Jolteon looked up at Ash and smiled, "Jolt jol eon jolt."

Ash grinned, "I see. You really want to get out there and battle don't you? Well, maybe you'll get lucky. We'll see. For now, lets just relax and wait for tomorrow's battle before deciding anything."

Jolteon nodded before curling up into a ball by Ash's side. At the comfortable sounds of a sleeping Jolteon and Houndoom, Ash decided to try and get some rest as well. He rested his head on the ground, closed his eyes, and drifted off.

-Outside of Arena 1-

"I don't think we're going to be able to find Five in this crowd," Dawn said. "I mean look at it, there must be a thousand people here trying to get his attention. How are we supposed to fight our way through here and get to him?"

Paul provided an answer for her, "We could just leave him in there to suffer. He did this to himself by showing his power so soon. If he had waited for a later round to show off, he could have escaped some of this attention. He also could have been escorted out by officers to keep the people back. I say we let him fight his way out of the mob and then talk to him."

"I hate to say it," Brock began, "but I think Paul is right. There's no way for us to get through this crowd, so we should wait-"

His response was cut short as a massive wall of aura pushed the crowd aside and Ash ran out of it and into the forest. The group watched in awe at the display of power before Dawn spoke up, "Wait, Five can use aura? I thought only Ash could do that."

"Not quite," Brock said, "Remember Riley? We met him on Iron Island, he could use aura as well. It's a rare talent, but there are other people who can use it."

Dawn nodded her head, "Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Still, that was incredible. I don't think I've ever seen such a powerful aura user before. He must have trained quite a bit during his life."

Misty then spoke up, "Wait, since he got out of the crowd, shouldn't we go find him now?"

"No," May said, "Leave him be for a little but. Chances are he wants to calm down after his battle. For now, we should just walk around and watch random battles until Nando's. You battle at 3:00, right?"

Nando smiled, "Yes I do. Although I don't think I will be able to put on the same kind of display as our friend Five did, I will most certainly do my best."

It was around this time that Gary noticed something, "Hey guys, where'd Anabel go?" He asked the group.

After everyone had looked around and noticed she wasn't there, Brock shrugged. "Who knows, she has her own battle today as well. She's probably just getting ready for that."

However, Anabel had not gone off to prepare herself for her battle, she had instead disappeared into the forest right after Ash had. After walking through the forest for a while, she finally made it to the clearing by the lake. The sight she saw surprised her for a couple of reasons. The first being that she had never seen Ash's other Pokémon before.

She knew that Ash had wanted to keep them a secret for a while, so she felt a little bad about just showing up unannounced and catching him while his other Pokémon were out.

What really surprised her though was that almost all of the Pokémon were sleeping on Ash. Pikachu was on his stomach, Houndoom had his head resting on his lap, there was a Porygon-Z sitting on his legs, and a Jolteon lying on his chest. On his right side lay a Lucario while an Empoleon was at rest at his feet. Sitting down next to his head was a Staraptor. Anabel could hardly see Ash under all the Pokémon.

As she turned to leave him to his rest though, Ash spoke up, "Hey Anabel, what brings you here?"

The sound of his voice caused her to jump slightly, as she had thought him to be asleep. "Um, sorry about just walking in here like this. I know you had wanted to keep your Pokémon a secret from everyone."

Ash sighed, "Don't worry about it. I decided it was too much hassle trying to be so secretive. I mean, as long as you don't go around telling the whole world about my Pokémon, I don't mind. Just try to keep it a secret, okay?"

Anabel nodded, "Sure, I'll make sure not to tell anyone. By the way, what are you doing being buried alive by your Pokémon like this?"

Ash started laughing, "Well, I told them to go make sure they were prepared for battle by training, meditating, or some other means. They all decided they wanted to prepare for battle by resting with me. Since I was going to take a nap anyways, I figured I would let them. You never answered my question though, what brings you here?"

"Well, I wanted to congratulate you on your battle. It was a really good battle."

Once again, Ash began laughing, "Nice try Anabel, but that was a terrible lie. It was a terrible battle. My opponent didn't even put up a fight. Also, I didn't do anything. I actually had just fallen asleep when Houndoom nudged me after his win."

Anabel looked at Ash funny, "You fell asleep? In a battle? Really? Are you really that crazy?"

Ash turned his head to look at Anabel before giving her a crazy grin, "Yes I am that crazy. Besides, since it wasn't my battle, I saw no reason to stay awake for it."

Anabel sat down next to Ash and looked at him, "What do you mean that wasn't your battle? It was your second preliminary battle of the tournament!"

Ash chuckled, "Well, if you look at it that way then I guess it was my battle, but what I meant was that it was Houndoom's battle. The opposing trainer decided to insult Houndoom multiple times during our little handshake prior to the beginning of the battle. By talking bad about Houndoom instead of me, it made it Houndoom's responsibility to win the battle and reclaim his pride, not mine. After hearing Jeff's words, Houndoom insisted on fighting the battle himself and I obliged."

Anabel shook her head, "You really are a strange guy Ash, you know that? Still, regardless of that, how did you break free of the crowd outside the arena? That was quite the impressive display you put on."

"Yes I do know I'm a strange guy, but I don't really care. As for my power display, that was just me using my aura. It's an incredibly useful skill to have as a lone wolf attacking a criminal organization. It took me a while to master, but with Lucario here, I managed to pull it off."

Anabel looked at the blue dog-like Pokémon before turning back to Ash, "So Lucario taught you how to use your aura?"

"Well, kind of. We both learned to use aura together. I found him as a Riolu and as he learned his aura powers through instinct, he worked with me on mine. At the same time, I taught him what I already knew about aura from my adventures."

Anabel nodded, "I see. I suppose that makes sense. Since Riolu is an aura Pokémon, it would make sense for him to instinctively have a knack for using aura. Also, I must say, these are some amazing Pokémon you have. It's been quite some time since I've seen such a powerful group of Pokémon gathered in one place."

Ash smiled while his Pokémon voiced their thanks. "Well Anabel, it took quite a bit of work and dedication on their part. However, they wanted to train and grow strong and now they want to show the world their power."

Anabel smiled, "Well, with this tournament, they will get to do just that. Now, how long are you going to stay hidden here in the forest? You need to go back eventually."

Ash groaned, "Well, I'm currently trying to avoid that. I did put on a bit of a show as I ran into the forest, which will only serve to make more people come after me for answers."

"I see," Anabel mused. "So since I've seen your Pokémon now, does that mean you'll tell me more stories about your adventures these past three years?"

Ash looked at her and shrugged, "I suppose I could, but you still need to tell me more about you. As secretive as I've tried to be, I think you know more about me than I do about you."

Anabel smirked at Ash, "Well that's because I'm not as mysterious as you. With you trying to be all mysterious and secretive, it just pushes people to learn more about you. If you would just give straightforward answers without trying to hide things, you could be just like me."

Ash looked at Anabel, "Okay then, what's your story? How did you become a Frontier Brain at such a young age?"

"Well, that's a boring story. I was just too good. I travelled through Kanto without losing a single fight. One day when I was Vermillion City, I ran into Scott. He told me he was looking for gifted trainers to start some new battle utopia thing. When I told him about my ability and the fact that I had never lost a battle, he took an interest in me and had me battle several of the so-called Battle Brains he had already recruited. In short order, I defeated Noland, Lucy, and Spencer. Seeing me defeat them all, he set up a battle between Brandon and me. I lost the battle, but Brandon had been impressed by my fighting style as much as Scot had, so Scott gave me the chance to join his new organization."

Ash looked at Anabel, "That's it? You're right, that isn't the most exciting story. It is, however, quite impressive. How many badges did you have before you found Scott?"

Anabel shrugged, "12."

Ash looked at her, "Why did you get 12 Kanto badges? You only need eight to participate in the Pokémon League."

Anabel nodded, "I know, but I really enjoyed battling, so I took on as many challenges as I could. I never could resist a good battle."

Ash nodded, "I can understand that, but still, you never lost a single battle until you faced Brandon?"

Anabel nodded, "Yeah, he was the first person to ever defeat me. It was actually really cool. At first I was upset about it, but then he explained to me how I could learn from it and get better as a trainer. In the end, he actually helped me out quite a bit by defeating me."

As the pair continued to talk, Ash's Pokémon watched in silent happiness for their trainer. They had done everything they could to make him happy, but the joy Anabel seemed to bring him was something they hadn't ever seen from him before. Before long though, most of the afternoon had passed.

Ash caught sight of the sky and gasped, "Holy Crap! How long have we been talking?" He asked Anabel.

She looked down at her Pokémon communicator and gasped, "Oh my, it's already 4:15!"

Ash immediately shot up, "Crap, I have to go! Paul battles in 15 minutes and I can't miss that!" He then immediately recalled all of his Pokémon except Houndoom and Pikachu and took off sprinting for the arena's to watch Paul's battle.

Anabel sighed as Ash ran out of the clearing. She then looked out over the lake, "Well, that was a fun conversation. Still, I can't believe how quickly the time passed. I really like you Ash, and I hope you feel the same way about me." She then shook her head to clear her mind before jogging out of the forest after Ash.

After sprinting for ten minutes, Ash made it to arena 10 where Paul's next battle was to take place. He quickly entered it and took a seat next to Dawn. As he sat down, he decided to let the others know that he was there. "So guys, did I miss anything exciting while I was gone?"

At the sound of his voice, everyone turned to face him before simultaneously exclaiming, "FIVE! Where have you BEEN?"

Ash shrugged sheepishly, "Well, I wanted to avoid the crowds and lay for a while, so I went to my little hidden training grounds and rested for a while. I got distracted by what I was doing and by the time I looked up, it was 4:15."

Gary looked at Ash, "And what exactly were you doing that was so distracting? Did it involve anyone in particular?"

Ash did his best to shrug nonchalantly before answering, "I was just talking with my Pokémon." Based upon the angry and slightly jealous look on May's face, he figured he didn't do a very good job of it. "Anyways, I came to watch Paul's battle, so lets watch that and talk later."

With a huff, May turned to face the battlefield. Gary then looked at Ash with a smirk while Ash just glared at him.

Down on the battlefield, Paul walked up to his opponent. The other trainer was a middle-aged woman who was a little on the short side and maybe a little overweight. She had short brown hair with a little bit of gray. The two trainers shook hands before walking over to their respective sides of the field and grabbing a pokeball.

The judge raised a flag, "This is a 3-on-3 battle between Paul from Sinnoh and Elizabeth from Johto. There is no time limit and the battle will be over once one trainer is out of usable Pokémon. Begin." With that, he lowered the flag to signal the start of the battle.

Simultaneously, the two trainers threw out their pokeballs and in the flashes of light, two Pokémon appeared. In front of Paul stood a tall flaming Pokémon with what appeared to be cannons for arms. On a forest field, Magmortar could do some real damage. In front of the lady a four-legged green dinosaur-like Pokémon appeared with a wreath of flower petals around its neck. Ash looked at the Meganium and immediately felt bad for her. This battle would be over pretty quickly.

Paul started the battle immediately, "Magmortar, finish this with fire blast."

Immediately, Magmortar raised his arm cannons and blasted out immensely hot and powerful flames towards the slow moving grass-type Pokémon.

Elizabeth tried to call out to her Pokémon, "Meganium, stop the flames with petal dance!"

And to her credit, the Meganium's petal dance slowed down the flames for a brief moment. That moment, however, was short lived as the flames quickly overcame the attack and landed a massive blow on the opposing Pokémon. As soon as the flames cleared, Meganium fell to the ground, unable to continue.

The judge looked at the scene and raised a flag, "Meganium is no longer able to battle, Magmortar is the winner."

Elizabeth recalled her fallen Pokémon and thanked her for trying. She then grabbed a different pokeball and threw it out. "Crobat, let's have some fun."

As soon as the Pokémon was released, Paul called his attack. "Magmortar, set fire to all the tree's so that Crobat can't get close."

Magmortar obliged, and soon there was a miniature forest fire burning on the field. Crobat tried to attack his opponent, but the flames were keeping him away. The fact that he couldn't find Magmortar in the flames wasn't helping.

Elizabeth saw the mess and tried to fix it, "Crobat, put out the fires with a strong wing attack."

Paul smirked and called out his attack, "Magmortar, thunderbolt. End this battle."

Instantly, a massive bolt of lighting flew out of the forest and hit Crobat, who was busy trying to attack all of the flames. The bolt was too much for the Pokémon as he fell to the ground unconscious.

The judge once more raised his flag, "Crobat is unable to battle, Magmortar wins."

Elizabeth quickly recalled her Pokémon before once more reaching for a pokeball. This time when she threw it, a blue duck-like Pokémon with a red gem on its forehead appeared.

Paul looked at the Golduck and smirked, "You think a type advantage will help you here? Not likely. Magmortar, shake things up with earthquake."

"Golduck, put out all the fire with hydro pump!"

Immediately, the two Pokémon set to work. As Golduck tried to douse every source of flames in sight, Magmortar began pounding the ground with his feet, causing massive tremors to travel through the ground and knocking Golduck off his feet. After that, the earthquake proceeded to shake the Pokémon around as he continued to try and douse all the flames.

When the earthquake died down, most of the flames had been put out and the field had been almost completely destroyed. Golduck shakily got to his feet, panting hard after the intense attack. Magmortar just stood in the middle of the still smoldering field, smirking at his opponent.

Paul reacted to the situation first and ended the battle. "Magmortar, end this with faint attack."

Magmortar then appeared to disappear before suddenly appearing before Golduck and slamming into him at full power. The attack knocked the Pokémon to the ground, to exhausted to get back up.

The judge raised his flag, "Golduck is unable to battle, the winner of this round is Magmortar. The winner of this preliminary battle is Paul and Magmortar."

As the crowd erupted in cheers, Paul recalled his Pokémon and walked out of the arena. Up in the stands, Dawn was jumping in joy, "Did you guys see that? Paul totally kicked her butt! No one can beat Paul!"

"Well, he was pretty good there, but whether or not he can defeat Five or the champions remains to be seen," Brock informed her.

Dawn shrugged, "I don't care what you say, I already know that Paul is unbeatable. No one is going to stop him from winning this tournament."

May then looked over at Dawn and asked a question, "Speaking of unbeatable, where did Five go? Wasn't he here at the start of the battle?"

Dawn looked to her side where Ash had been sitting and looked surprised, "I don't know where he went. He was definitely here earlier. I wonder why he was in such a hurry to get out of here?"

After thinking about it for several seconds, Gary spoke up, "Well, he probably is still trying to hide from all the attention he drew to himself earlier. He watched the battle and then disappeared before anyone could see him. He'll turn up eventually.

May sighed, "Fine, lets go. I'm hungry and I want to find Five, after all, he might have just gone for some food."

As the group left the arena, they bumped into Anabel. May looked at her, "Hey Anabel, where have you been? We were all watching Paul's battle and you were nowhere to be found."

Anabel sighed, "Sorry, I got a little distracted and lost track of time. When I looked up, it was too late to make it to Paul's battle. I was on my way to get some food before battling though, did you guys want to come with me?"

As the group walked to the Pokémon Center for some food, Paul caught up with them. As soon as Dawn saw him, she ran up to him and hugged him, "Good job Paul, you completely destroyed that woman. She didn't stand a chance against you."

Paul smirked, "Of course she didn't. The chances of getting an opponent in the preliminaries who could push me is miniscule. I probably won't be challenged until the second or third stage of the tournament."

"Careful Paul," Brock warned, "you're going to jinx it if you talk that way. If your final three opponents all happen to be champions, it would be pretty easy for you to miss the cut and get knocked out early."

Paul looked at Brock, "Heh, no need to worry. I can take the champions no problem."

He then realized that everyone was staring at him funny while Dawn was giggling again, "What? Did I say something funny?"

Brock gave a small laugh, "No, it's nothing. I just can't believe that you've spent so much time with Dawn that you're starting to use her lines."

Paul got a confused look on his face before he realized what he had said. He then turned red and looked away, "Ah, never mind. Forget I said anything."

Gary laughed, "No way man, I'm never letting you forget this. Since you can kick my butt in a battle, I need this to get even with you. I can't wait to tell Five about this."

Paul glared at him, "Don't you dare Gary. If you do, so help me I will rip your throat out."

Gary laughed, "Sure you would. I bet your little girlfriend would stop you first."

Misty then turned to Gary, "Yeah, and your girlfriend is going to stop you from messing with Paul because she likes seeing you alive. So stop it and lets get dinner."

After that, the group ate their dinner before returning to stadium 1 for Anabel's battle. As the battle was about to begin, Ash appeared once more beside his friends. This time, May noticed him, "Hey Five, welcome back. How have you been?"

Ash smiled, "Hey May. I've been fine. Rested up and hid from the publicity. Now it's time to watch Anabel's battle."

After he spoke, Anabel took the field and walked to the center of it. Her opponent was an old man, probably close to 70 years old. He had a wrinkled face that showed much experience. He had white hair and was a little hunched in the back. After they shook hands, the trainers took their places on either end of the field.

The judge raised his flag, "This will be a 3-on-3 battle between Anabel from Kanto and Jonathan from Kanto. There will be no time limit. The winner will be determined when one trainer is out of usable Pokémon. Begin." He then lowered his flags to begin the match.

The old man looked at Anabel, "Your mind games won't with me little girl, I'm far too experienced to be caught off guard." He then grabbed a pokeball and threw it, "Hitmonlee, come out and prepare for battle."

In front of the man a brown Pokémon with long, powerful legs appeared. He then performed a few super fast kicks to show off his speed and power.

Anabel grabbed a pokeball and threw it as well, "Alakazam, let us fight once more."

In front of Anabel, a brown and yellow Pokémon appeared holding a spoon in each of his two hands. He looked at his opponent and stood his ground.

Anabel looked at Alakazam and spoke into his mind, _My friend, start off with a psychic and then follow with psybeam._

Instantly, Alakazam focused on the fighting type Pokémon in front of him and surrounded him in a light blue psychic aura. As the Pokémon was thrown across the field, the man called out, "Hitmonlee, don't let that stop you, chase him down and use blaze kick!"

As Hitmonlee ran towards his opponent, he had to dodge the beam of psychic energy that was being launched at him by the Alakazam.

Anabel looked at the situation, _Alakazam, show them your speed that people always seem to forget about. Dodge his kicks and keep firing psybeams at him._

Alakazam obliged the request and nimbly evaded all the kicks that Hitmonlee sent his way. As he dodged, he sent multiple beams of psychic energy at his opponent. For the most part, Hitmonlee was able to avoid them all, but he was not capable of dodging all of them. Pretty soon, Hitmonlee was pretty exhausted while Alakazam had barely exerted himself.

Jonathan called out to his Pokémon, "Use your agility to your advantage. Your powerful legs should allow you to change directions and intercept Alakazam, just concentrate on him and then use close combat!"

As commanded, Hitmonlee began changing directions quicker and getting closer to hitting Alakazam.

_Keep calm and focus. As soon as you get an opening, finish this battle with a psychic attack._

Alakazam listened to the commands and kept up his current routine of dodging and firing psybeams towards Hitmonlee. After another minute of this, Hitmonlee finally made contact with Alakazam and immediately took advantage of this to launch a furious barrage of powerful kicks to the psychic type Pokémon.

When the attack ended, Alakazam saw his chance and once more enveloped Hitmonlee in psychic energy and threw him across the field before slamming him into the ground. The attack was too much for the fighter as he passed out on the battlefield.

The judge saw this and raised his flag, "Hitmonlee is unable to battle, the winner is Alakazam."

Jonathan returned his Pokémon before smiling at Anabel, "I must say young lady, you are quite the trainer. That Alakazam of yours is quite powerful. However, lets see him stand up to this!" He then grabbed a pokeball and tossed it, "Weavile, come out and battle!"

In front of the man, a small black Pokémon with red hair, ears, collar, and tail appeared. The Pokémon glared at Alakazam before taking a battle stance. The old man spoke, "Weavile, nigh slash."

Anabel saw the attack and retaliated, _Dodge quickly and retaliate with a quick fire punch._

As Weavile's claws began glowing with dark energy, Alakazam's fists began glowing with fire. Weavile then charged his opponent and launched a serious of powerful slash attacks that Alakazam tried to dodge. Weavile, however, was faster than Alakazam could handle, causing him to get hit by the attack. The hit, however, did not stop him from landing a solid fire punch on Weavile as he ran away.

Both Pokémon cried out in pain as the super effective attacks landed, although Alakazam was a little worse off having taken damage during the previous battle. The old man looked at Anabel once more, "Your Alakazam may be fast, but there are very few Pokémon who can keep up with my Weavile. This battle will soon be over. Weavile use x-scissor to finish off Alakazam."

Anabel had to think quickly to counter this attack, _Alakazam, Weavile might be faster, but if you wait for the last second to dodge, he won't be able to react fast enough to catch you. After you dodge, hit him with another fire punch._

Right before Weavile's attack made contact with Alakazam, the psychic type jumped to the side and fired a fire punch right into Weavile's side. The smaller Pokémon called out in pain, but at the same time released a dark pulse that had been forming in his mouth unbeknownst to Alakazam and Anabel. The Dark energy scored a direct hit on Alakazam, causing even more damage to be done.

After the exchange of attacks, the two Pokémon resumed their stare down while the old man spoke up, "You didn't think you were the only one that could command their Pokémon without vocalizing did you? I may not be as adept at it as you are, but I too hold my share of surprises. Now Weavile, bring a true end to this battle, use agility and then night slash."

As Weavile began speeding up, Anabel contemplated her strategy. Finally she made a decision, _Alakazam, with that speed boost; there will be no way to dodge the attack. Instead, charge a focus punch and hit Weavile just as he hits you. That should end the battle._

Alakazam nodded and began charging energy into his fist. As Weavile began his charge, Alakazam focused on his opponent, intent on bringing down the faster Pokémon even if it meant falling in battle himself. He had a job and he intended to accomplish it. As Weavile's claws made contact with him, he launched his punch right into Weavile's face, scoring a direct and super powerful blow. Although he didn't have a lot of strength, a powerful fighting type attack scoring a direct hit against a Pokémon with a double weakness to it was bound to cause massive damage.

As the dust cleared from the explosion the two attacks had caused, everyone looked down to see both Pokémon had been knocked out. The judge raised his flag, "Both Alakazam and Weavile are unable to battle, this round ends in a draw."

The two trainers returned their Pokémon and thanked them for battling hard before grabbing another ball. Anabel threw hers first, "Metagross, take the field so we can win this battle!"

The old man looked at the lumbering steel and psychic type before grinning at his opponent, "Well Anabel, I must say, you truly are a gifted trainer, however, I'm afraid my next Pokémon will be more than enough to take you down. He has been with me for many years and is truly an incredible fighter. Blaziken, my friend, let us battle together once more!" With that, he threw his pokeball and a large standing chicken-like Pokémon appeared. He was mostly orange, with some yellow as well as cream-colored hair sticking out behind his head.

The two Pokémon stared each other down before the trainers decided to issue commands. Anabel looked at Metagross, _Be careful, I can tell that Blaziken is quite powerful. Be wary of his fire attacks and start off with Psychic._

As Metagross launched a psychic attack, Jonathan called out, "Withstand this first attack and then charge in with flare blitz. End this battle now."

As commanded, Blaziken merely took the beating brought on by the powerful psychic attack before charging at Metagross while surrounding himself in flames.

Anabel watched the charging Pokémon and knew that this attack was not something Metagross could dodge or maybe even withstand; she needed to do something quick. _Hurry Metagross, meet him head on with a zen headbutt._ She knew the idea was crazy and would probably end the battle for Metagross, but she also knew it would deal a lot of damage to Blaziken who had already been injured by the psychic attack and would also take a lot of damage from his current attack.

As the two powerful beasts collided in the middle of the battlefield, a massive explosion was created. When the smoke died down, Metagross was lying on the ground unconscious while Blaziken was simply panting heavily.

The judge raised his flag, "Metagross is unable to battle, the winner is Blaziken."

Anabel recalled her fallen Pokémon before turning to face Jonathan, "That is an impressive Blaziken you have, being able to withstand all this damage and still be standing, however, I'm afraid he won't be able to withstand my final Pokémon." She then reached down and grabbed her third pokeball and tossed it out, "Espeon, my friend, come out and battle!"

On the field, a small purple cat appeared. She looked at the field and her opponent before letting out a small smile and taking a battle stance.

Anabel smiled at her Pokémon before giving a command, _Espeon, launch a swift attack while running and then follow up with quick attack. Don't let Blaziken hit you._

Espeon immediately opened her mouth and fired a bunch of stars at Blaziken while also proceeding to run around the fire-type in circles. As Blaziken tried to defend himself from the stars, Espeon charged in and proceeded to repeatedly slam into the Pokémon with a quick attack. As fast it had started, Espeon was standing in front of Anabel again as if nothing had happened while Blaziken panted even harder than before.

Jonathan grinned, "That is an impressive Pokémon, you are right, however, this battle isn't over yet. Blaziken, use flamethrower and then sky uppercut!"

Anabel smiled at the tactic and decided to try her own strategy, _Espeon, dodge the flamethrower normally. Then use psychic on yourself to dodge the sky uppercut. After that, launch a full power psybeam directly at Blaziken to end the match._

As the flames shot towards Espeon, she nimbly jumped out of the way, only to look up and see Blaziken bearing down on her with a powerful punch charged. She immediately performed psychic on herself to move herself out of reach of the blaze Pokémon. This move surprised Blaziken so much he wasn't prepared for the point blank psybeam he took in the chest. The attack did massive damage to him and he struggled to get to his feet.

Anabel smiled at his determination, but knew that he was no longer able to battle. Deciding to end it quickly, she spoke, "Espeon, end this with hyper beam."

Hearing the command out loud startled the older man into not delivering an attack of his own, leaving Blaziken wide open to the powerful beam. When the dust settled, Blaziken was clearly knocked out.

The judge raised his flag, "Blaziken is no longer able to battle, Espeon is the winner of this match. The winner of this preliminary battle is Espeon and Anabel."

After the announcement, the crowd broke into cheers for Anabel and her impressive victory. Anabel smiled at the old man, "That was an amazing fight. I'm glad you were able to challenge me instead of getting overwhelmed like so many of my opponents. Your Blaziken was also incredibly strong."

The old man smiled at her, "Well Anabel, your Pokémon were impressive as well. Your Alakazam took out two of my Pokémon while your Metagross did a lot more damage than I would have believed from its attack. Your Espeon also had impressive speed and power. You are a marvelous trainer for one so young. Kind of like that mysterious guy I've been hearing about, goes by the name Five. I bet he could give you a battle as good as this one, if not more so. Anyways, I wish you the best of luck in this tournament, I can tell that you'll go far. It takes quite a bit of skill to take down a champion after all."

Anabel looked at him, "You're a champion? Of what region?"

The old man smiled, "Back in my day, I was quite the hotshot. I won the silver conference about 55 years ago. Got runner-up in Hoenn as well. Anyways, I'll be keeping an eye on you, so good luck in the rest of this tournament."

Anabel smiled at the man once more, "Thanks. It was a fun battle and I will do my best to try and win this tournament."

With that, the competitors separated and made for the respective exits.

Up in the stands, Ash was grinning, "That was a great battle. I wasn't sure if that old guy had it in him, but his Blaziken was a piece of work. He really pushed Anabel and made her give her best. That psychic attack on her own Pokémon was a very clever strategy that even surprised me. I think I'll have to try that in my future battles. Now I'm going to go congratulate Anabel, if you guys want to join me, then fine. After that, I'm going to check my opponent for tomorrow since that should be getting published soon."

May nodded her head, "Fine. I guess that works. Lets go."

The group of friends then made their way to the entrance of the arena to meet up with Anabel. When they found her, Ash grinned, "That was incredible Anabel, you really are a great battler!"

Anabel blushed at the compliment, "Thanks Five, that means a lot coming from you. That old man though, he put up a real fight. I wasn't expecting him to have so much power at such an old age."

Ash nodded, "I know, he was clearly a skilled battler in his younger days. That Blaziken of his was also incredibly powerful. I couldn't believe it remained standing after its collision with your Metagross. That would have taken down almost every Pokémon in this tournament. You did a great job pulling out a win there."

Once again Anabel blushed, "Well, I'm glad you enjoyed my battle, I'm also glad I managed to win."

Ash nodded, "Also, that psychic attack you had Espeon use on herself, that was a genius move. I think I'm going to have to steal that for my future battles if you don't mind."

Anabel's face was now a deep shade of red at all the compliments. May was red as well, but for her it was out of anger. She wanted to be the one to receive the compliments and hearing Anabel getting praised by Ash was making her incredibly jealous.

Finally, Anabel spoke up, "Well sure you can use that strategy. I mean with everything you've done to help me out it's the least I can do. Now, where are we headed? I assume you guys have some destination in mind."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, the battles for the day should be finishing around now, so I was going to check the Pokémon Center for my next opponent so I can be prepared tomorrow."

Anabel nodded, "Yeah, that's a good idea. I think I'll join you all."

With that, the group walked over to the Pokémon Center. As they entered, they heard an announcement being made, "Attention all tournament participants, with today's battles finished, your next opponent has been decided and will be up on display in the Pokémon Center. Thank you and have a good evening."

Ash grinned and ran over to the battle board to check his opponent. As he scanned the list, he grinned, "It looks Paul has his work cut out for him. He's battling Flint of the Sinnoh Elite Four tomorrow. That should be a fun match to watch."

Misty and Max then found their opponents as well. Anabel then took a look and found that she was going to battle a gym leader from Johto known as Whitney. This left everyone waiting for Ash's announcement of his next opponent. However, when they looked at him, they saw him frozen in place with a smile on his face.

Anabel nudged him, "Hey, Five, who's your opponent and why is this making you so happy? Is it someone we should know?"

Finally, Ash turned to face them, "Well, I would hope you've at least heard of the guy before. I had been hoping to only have to use Houndoom for the preliminaries, but it would seem the fates decided to test me. I had a feeling things wouldn't go so easily for me, but at least my first real challenge should actually be a challenge. This is going to be fun."

The group looked at Ash who still hadn't given them an answer. "Um, Five," Brock said, "You still haven't told us who you're facing yet."

Ash looked at them all with a huge grin, "Paul got lucky enough to end up against Flint in his next battle. I, on the other hand, got the best luck in the world. I get to face the Champion of the Hoenn Elite Four. My next opponent is Wallace."

For several seconds everyone was silent. No one made any noise or even moved. They all just looked at Ash, or Five as some of them knew him, and stared. This guy was thrilled with the prospect of going up against one of the greatest trainers in the world at such an early stage. The concept baffled them.

Finally, Anabel spoke up, "Well, good luck with that. I don't doubt you can win, but are you ready for this?"

Ash nodded, "Oh yeah, I've been waiting for a chance to prove my strength and here it is in the first stage of the competition. It will probably ruin my plan of only using Houndoom this round, but at the same time, I get a chance to truly test myself and my Pokémon."

Gary looked at him funny, "You're going up against a champion and you only think that it will probably require you to use more than one Pokémon? I'd be amazed if you won this battle with three Pokémon."

Ash laughed at that, "Well, I don't care what you think. He might be incredibly strong and powerful, but I'm ready for him. As for using more than Houndoom, seeing as he's a water type master, Houndoom will probably fail to take down more than one Pokémon. After that though, I think I can finish him with one of my other Pokémon. I'd say there's a 50% chance I can beat him with just two Pokémon and a 50% chance it takes three. There is, however, no way I'm going to lose."

Brock began laughing at that, "Five, your confidence is amazing, even I have a hard time understanding how you can be so confident, but I don't doubt you either. I saw your battle today and the power your Houndoom was. I also have seen your other Pokémon and know that they are just as strong. So good luck with your battle. Speaking of which, when is it?"

Ash looked at the screen once more, "Oh man, this just keeps getting better for me! I can't believe it! Not only am I battling Wallace, I get to battle him in arena 9, a water field!"

Misty started looking at Ash like he was crazy, "You're happy to battle the person who is currently considered the greatest water Pokémon master on a _water _field? I think you've finally lost it."

Ash just shrugged, "A little extra challenge. It should make the battle more interesting. Anyways, the battle is tomorrow morning at 10:00. It's also getting solo airtime on television. Normally they switch between battles, but it seems this one is going to draw enough attention to warrant solo coverage. I can't wait. Now, I'm heading out for the evening, I have a crazy battle to prepare for and I'm probably going to need to do all the prepping I can for it."

Brock nodded, "Understandable. Good luck with your planning and good luck with your battle tomorrow."

Ash nodded, "Thanks. Anyways, I'm off to go and prepare for my battle, I'll see you guys tomorrow after I beat Wallace!"

With that, Ash took off into the forest to prepare for his battle the following day. After he left, Paul walked in, "What's got that guy so excited? He looked happier than I've ever seen him."

Brock just shook his head, "He found out his opponent for tomorrow and got incredibly excited by it. By the way, you battle Flint of the Sinnoh Elite Four tomorrow."

Paul grinned, "Really? And here I was thinking the prelims would be a cakewalk. I guess I might finally have to go all out. Now, who is Five battling that's got him so excited?"

Brock smirked, "You think you're lucky to get to battle Flint, Five gets to battle Wallace. On a water field."

Paul got a crazy grin on his face, "Oh my, that should be a terrific battle. It's not every day you get to see someone defeat a champion."

Gary looked at him in shock, "You really think he can do it? I mean, I know he's good, but is he ready to take on a champion?"

Paul just shook his head and smirked, "Do you know the things he's accomplished in his life? I'm positive he's going to win. In fact, I bet he'll probably do it with just two Pokémon. Since Wallace only uses water types, Five will pull out a Pokémon with an advantage against them to defeat two of Wallace's Pokémon. Houndoom will take out one. Five will lose two Pokémon while Wallace will lose three. With one Pokémon left, Five will be the winner and no one will see his third Pokémon. Wallace would have better luck if this was a 6-on-6 battle."

Dawn looked at Paul funny, "Is your mind connected to Five's or something? He was saying the same thing about winning with just two Pokémon."

Paul paled, "Please tell me that's not true. I mean, I really don't want to turn into him. On the other hand, once he's beaten Wallace, it will make my victory over him even more impressive. I can't wait."

With that, the group members each went their own ways in order to prepare themselves for the battles that lay ahead.

**Chapter 6 complete. Sweet Jesus this is a long chapter.**

**Wow, 19,000 words. Just a tad longer than I had been planning on making it. I thought my 10,000 word chapters were going to be my limit, but no, it just isn't that simple and now I'm publishing 19,000 word chapters. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed it. There are parts of this chapter I'm not particularly fond of, but for the most part I really like it. **

**The next chapter is going to be really fun. I've had the battle between Ash and Wallace planned since I finished the second chapter. The only battles I'm planning on going in depth about next chapter are Paul and Ash's battles. If you want more though, just ask me. **

**Now I have a question for you all, how far should Max and Misty make it in this tournament? Should either of them make it past the prelims? Should both of them make it past the prelims? Your input would be greatly appreciated.**

**For those of you who voted in my poll that I had up, the poll is now closed. The results are on my profile, but Cynthia won. I also got inspiration for a second story that I will start writing once I have figured out more of the details of it. That could be in three days, it could be a month. Once I start writing it though, I will put a teaser on my profile for you guys.**

**Now, like always, if you have anything to say to me regarding this story or anything else, leave me a review or send me a PM. I appreciate feedback as it helps me make decisions for certain aspects of the story.**

**Thank you all and I love all of you guys who take time out of your lives to read the stuff that I write. You all are awesome and don't let anyone tell you different.**

_**Well, this chapter is no longer 19,000 words because of everything I took out of it. On the other hand, it is still the longest chapter yet at around 17,000 words of content. **_

_**Anyways, I took out the part with May learning who Five is. As I said earlier, that will be part of the second stage of the tournament. I actually have a plan for that.**_

_**Anyways, this is the end of my edits of what I already had written. Hopefully I don't have to do this again, but I will if I feel like it will improve the story.**_

_**Edited 6/26/2012**_


	7. Chapter 7

_**IMPORTANT: I edited the first six chapters of the story and made some changes to the last one. It wouldn't hurt to go through and at least reread the last chapter. If you don't want to, I got rid of the part with May finding out that Five is Ash.**_

_**So, I had this chapter half done before I did all the editing of my previous chapters. That meant I had to go through here and edit out any part of May knowing who Five is and all that. Anyways, this will be the last italicized AN unless I do another round of edits on my chapters at a later date.**_

**Chapter 7**

**Well, this is going to be a fun chapter. It's going to have the battle between Paul and Flint as well as the battle between Ash and Wallace. On top of that, well, you'll see. I have no restraints when it comes to chapter length. As I have said, I try to do one day per chapter, if that makes the chapter really long, so be it. If you would prefer me to have shorter chapters, around 10,000-15,000 words with slightly faster updates, just tell me and I'll consider it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.**

-The lake in the forest-

Ash woke up early by the lake. He sat up quickly with a smile on his face and exclaimed, "Inspiration has struck! This will be a fun battle."  
He then looked around and realized his sudden exclamation had woken his Pokémon who were now all looking at him with slight irritation. Ash looked at them sheepishly, "Sorry guys, I just got a great idea for today's battle though."

His Pokémon all got excited looks on their faces and crowded around him, hoping that they were a part of his battle plan. Ash looked at them all and grinned, "Well, I can't use all of you, and I'm still going to start with Houndoom. My other two Pokémon for this battle will be Empoleon and Jolteon. If Houndoom doesn't make it past the first battle, then Empoleon will go in and do some damage. If, however, Houndoom makes it past Wallace's first Pokémon, Jolteon will be second and we will have a little bit of fun with the battle. I'm pretty sure the world will be quite surprised by your speed Jolteon. Wallace will be wary of your power due to the reputation I have built up in this tournament so far, allowing him to be caught off guard by your speed.

"As for you Empoleon, if you get into the battle, we can show the world that Wallace may be a water Pokémon master, but that doesn't mean he's the best. If you take the field, you can make your claim to being the most powerful water Pokémon around."

At these announcements, the two Pokémon grinned and went off to make sure they would be prepared for battle. Ash's other Pokémon looked at him with a sad expression. Ash sighed, "Don't worry you guys, I will make sure you all get to battle in this tournament. There will be plenty of strong opponents to face off against and you will be able to show off at some point. I promise. Now come on and get ready for the day. After this battle, nothing will be the same."

With that, his other Pokémon broke off to go do some training while Ash decided to clear his mind before heading down to the arena for his battle.

Deciding that he was as ready as he was going to be, Ash recalled his Pokémon to their balls and began the journey to arena 9.

As soon as he reached the arena, he could hear the noise the crowd was making. From the sounds of it, he could tell the arena was filled beyond capacity and although they were currently cheering on the current battle, there was no doubt that something was being held back for the next battle that was to take place.

Ash grinned as he thought about what people were expecting from this battle. No doubt, many of them expected it to be a fascinating battle. A high level battle between a champion and another trainer who had quickly made known his power in this tournament. Many of the people were going to be wanting to see Wallace and his majestic battle style as he took down this rather mysterious figure. Although many of them were aware of what he had done in his previous battles, there was simply not enough known about him for the people to actually think he stood a chance at victory. That thought made Ash smirk, no doubt that after this battle was over, the people would be thinking differently.

He made his way to the waiting room to wait for the battlefield to be restored to new condition and for the announcement to be made for him to take the field. The previous battle had just ended and he could tell that the anticipation for the main event was driving the crowd crazy. After waiting for a few minutes, the announcement was made for him to take the field.

Ash turned to the electric mouse on his shoulder and grinned, "Well buddy, here we go. This will be a defining moment for this tournament. We're going to go out there and make a statement." He then turned to face Houndoom, "Houndoom, you're going to be starting this battle. If you can finish it as well, that would be amazing, but I know that Wallace is not going to be a pushover like our previous opponents. However far you make it in this battle will tell you how strong you are and show you where you can still improve. Our opponent is on the same level we are, so don't hold anything back. Play it smart, but don't pull your punches. Now, let's go out there and have some fun!"

After his two Pokémon had given their cheers of approval, Ash stepped into the tunnel that would lead him to the battlefield. As he walked along it, he could hear the crowd get louder with every step. Once he stepped out of the tunnel, the crowd exploded. The sound was phenomenal.

This arena was way smaller than the main one, but it had been designed in such a way as to maximize crowd noise and allow the sound to reverberate throughout the entire facility. Ash looked at the crowd and could clearly see that the seats designed sit 10,000 people were empty. Instead, way more than 10,000 had crowded the arena, forcing everyone to stand for the battle. The sight was amazing and it took him several seconds to regain his bearings and continue his walk towards the water field.

Once he reached the field, Ash looked across and saw his opponent. Wallace stood tall in all of his elegant glory. He wore the typical white cloth hat and long cape that covered most of his body. From just below the cape, Ash could see his purple pants and white shoes. Wallace smiled at his opponent before dramatically grabbing his cape and throwing it off of himself. The cape landed several feet behind the champion whose little flourish was met with even more cheering from the crowd.

With the cape off, he was revealed to be wearing a turquoise dress shirt with a white color and sleeves. The turquoise of the shirt matched the champion's hair and as the crowd cheered for his grace and beauty, he smiled and waved at his fans.

The two trainers then proceeded to look each other over before walking down the side of the field to meet in front of the battle judge. The two trainers once more looked each other over before Wallace spoke up, "Well, I must say that you have made quite the showing so far in this tournament, Five. It's not often an unknown trainer can take the world by storm as you have, but considering your accomplishment a year ago, I can't say I'm surprised. The league is still trying to decide if you're a threat or not."

Ash grinned at the champion, "Well Wallace, it's nice to see your flair for the dramatic hasn't waned since I last saw you. When it comes to my level of being a threat though, I must say, my alias of Five is quite the dangerous enemy to have but I intend no harm to befall the world. I did what I did because of what they did to my Pikachu. I took the name Five to protect my friends and family. I'm sure, however, that if you think about it hard enough, my identity will be made clear to you."

Wallace looked at Ash and seemed to contemplate his words before grinning, "I see, a young boy and his Pikachu. I seem to recall meeting someone like that at the Wallace Cup in Sinnoh. Interesting. I presume this is your dramatic reentry into the world then, is it not?"

Ash grinned, "Something like that. Anyways, it would seem our fans grow bored of our conversation, seeing as they can't hear us over the noise they're making, so what say you we entertain them with a battle for the ages?"

Wallace let out a laugh before responding, "Of course, that is what they all came for after all. Well then, let us enjoy a spectacular battle, the likes of which only the most elegant and powerful of trainers can provide!"

With that, Wallace walked back to his side of the field and took up his position while Ash turned to the judge. "I take it you can keep the contents of my conversation with Wallace a secret? I'd like to be able to keep my identity a secret a little longer."

The judge nodded, "Sure, part of my job is to keep these pre-battle conversations a secret. Trainers often have words for each other they don't want the rest of the world to hear. As public as a battle can be, it is still a private event occurring between two trainers and their Pokémon."

Ash nodded before walking over to his side of the field and looking over the battlefield once more. The field was a massive pool, maybe 15 feet deep. The pool took up the entire battlefield, but had several platforms in it for non water-based Pokémon to stand on. In the center was a large platform, circular in shape with a 10-foot radius. Scattered around the rest of the pool was about 20 smaller platforms, just large enough for a Pokémon to stand on but not be able to move.

As Ash looked at the battlefield and thought about what he had planned, he grinned. This was a perfect setup for him.

On the other side of the field, Wallace was smiling as well, "It would seem you like this field as much as I do. Well Five, good luck!"

The judge saw that the battlers were ready so he raised his flags, "This preliminary battle between Wallace, Champion of the Hoenn Elite Four and Five from Kanto is about to begin. This will be a 3-on-3 battle with no substitutions or time limit. The battle will be over once one trainer has had their three Pokémon declared unable to battle. Begin!" With a drop of his arms, the crowd erupted into cheers once more.

Ash looked down to the Houndoom at his side and signaled the central platform in the pool. The hound gave a small smirk before leaping into the water and swimming to the main platform before hopping out and shaking himself off. He then made a show of releasing a massive Flamethrower into the air accompanied by a roar that deafened all who heard it.

Wallace watched this display and laughed, "That was quite the show you put on there, your Houndoom is indeed a powerful beast. However, was it really smart to start this battle with a Pokémon you know will have the disadvantage in type as well as environment?"

"Well, normally that would be true, but Houndoom loves a good challenge, and after blowing through two battles with no challenge, he would be mad if I left him out of the first challenging battle of the tournament. Besides, it's only a disadvantage if it would make it harder for Houndoom to win," Ash announced with a cocky smile on his face and a mischievous glint in his eye.

Wallace noted the look and responded, "I see, well then, let us truly begin this battle." He then reached down and grabbed a pokeball before throwing it, "Tentacruel, take the field and show them our power!"

With a flash of light, a large blue jellyfish Pokémon appeared in the water. He had a blue body with red sacks on either side of his head and a small red gem on his forehead. He also had numerous tentacles on his underside. Tentacruel instantly locked eyes with his adversary and began analyzing the situation.

Houndoom also analyzed his opponent and roared his approval for the world to hear. Ash grinned, "Yes Houndoom, I can feel your happiness. For the first time in nearly a year you are up against an opponent who can push you to your limits. Don't let your guard down and have some fun with this battle."

Up in the stands, May turned to Brock, "What are they doing? They're talking as if they know each other. I mean, I know the competitors have their pre-battle handshake, but I haven't seen two competitors talk this much prior to a battle so far this tournament. What's going on?"

Brock shrugged, "In all honesty, there are several possible explanations. One being that they do know each other. The main thing is that the two are happy and appear to be acknowledging each other's ability as a trainer. My guess is they are both so happy about having a challenge so early on that they wanted to say a few things before the battle began."

Paul then butted in, "Yes, to an extent that is true. It could also be that they are testing each other. Trying to break concentration before the battle to gain an advantage or trying to psych out the other. At this level of battle, even the smallest of advantage's can play a large role in the battle. However, from what I know of these two, neither one will be able to psych out the other and this is simply friendly talking."

"Okay, that makes sense. Is that the same reason that Houndoom made such a show of entering the field as well? I haven't seen him excited for a battle yet," Dawn asked.

Anabel answered this time, "Yeah. Houndoom made that entry because of the situation. Entering with a disadvantage like he has, showing the utmost confidence in navigating the field as well as in his power is a way to show Wallace that he is more than capable of handling anything thrown at him. I'm really looking forward to this battle though. I can't wait to see what Five and his Pokémon are truly capable of."

"Oh yeah, I know what you mean," Gary announced. "I mean, it's clear they are strong, but this should be quite the show. We know that Five is a master tactician and knows quite a bit about controlling a battle. The way this battle plays out will show us how he compares to a champion. I'm curious about the swimming Houndoom though. I mean, I know that dogs normally enjoy swimming, but Houndoom is a fire type, he shouldn't be able to swim, at least not without doing minor damage to himself. What exactly was Five's reasoning for having him take to the main platform that way? In this kind of battle, every move has meaning. Nothing can be overlooked."

Misty nodded, "That was indeed strange. It would have been easier to jump across the smaller platforms to reach the main one, but the choice of swimming was made instead. It could be he's trying to show off to Wallace the resistance Houndoom has to water, but it could be something more. We'll have to wait and see. Now enough talk, I want to see this battle."

Back down on the battlefield, Wallace heard Ash's words of happiness towards Houndoom and grinned as well, "It seems that both of our Pokémon are pleased with the challenge being provided. Now, no more words; let our battle be our communication! Tentacruel, start things off with Hydro Pump and Poison Jab!"

"Houndoom, watch Tentacruel and counter with Thunder Fang. You know how this works."

As Tentacruel began launching a powerful stream of water at Houndoom, the powerful dog evaded the blast and stayed on his toes. He watched as Tentacruel moved closer while charging his tentacles for a powerful poison attack and waited to us his true speed to dodge. As soon as Tentacruel left the water and lunged at him, Houndoom jumped to the side of the Poison Jab and grabbed a mouthful of the jellyfish with his electrically charged fangs.

The bite hurt Tentacruel, but not enough to prevent him from using his real attack to jab Houndoom with his tentacles. Although the initial thrust had been evaded, Tentacruel had many of his tentacles charged and still managed to hit Houndoom with three of them.

Ash saw Houndoom get hit by the attack and grinned, he was looking forward to the challenge this battle posed. He also made a mental to be wary of Tentacruel's many tentacles. "Houndoom, release your Dark Pulse and blow Tentacruel away!" Ash yelled.

Before Ash had finished speaking, Houndoom had fired the ball of dark energy into Tentacruel and released his grip on the jellyfish, sending the Pokémon back into the pool.

Before he could follow up though, Tentacruel dove to the depths of the pool to recover from the blow. Wallace looked across the field at Ash and smiled, "That was an impressive attack and a good tactic. Throwing me off by having your Pokémon release his attack before you finished calling it. It has been quite some time since I battled someone on this level, but let me just tell you that it will take more that to defeat me. I'm not a Champion for nothing."

Ash grinned back at him, "Well good, I've been looking forward to being challenged like this. A chance to see if my Pokémon are truly as strong as I believe them to be. I can't wait to see where this battle goes. Now Houndoom, heat up the water a little. Flamethrower."

Wallace watched Houndoom release a powerful stream of flames onto the surface of the water before speaking, "There is much you must learn about water. It has what is known as a high heat capacity. That means it takes a lot of energy to heat the water to a point where it would be a problem for my Pokémon. Even if you could manage it, by the time you succeeded, your Pokémon would be exhausted. Now Tentacruel, scatter some Toxic Spikes on the platform and then use another Hydro Pump."

Ash saw what was about to happen and called out, "Houndoom, ignore the spikes, vaporize the Hydro Pump!"

Up in the stands, some people were scratching their heads at this. May decided to voice her confusion, "What's with that tactic? Wouldn't it be best to burn the spikes and dodge the Hydro Pump? What is Five doing?"

After a few seconds, Paul spoke up, "I think I've figured out what he's doing, but it's a risky gamble. If it pays off though, he could get quite the advantage in the later stages. For now, we'll have to wait and see."

Down on the field, Houndoom obeyed his trainer and used a Flamethrower to vaporize the powerful jet of water that was being fired at him. Meanwhile, Tentacruel also launched an array of poisonous spikes over the main platform in the pool. When the attacks ended, the field was covered in steam that was incredibly hard to see through.

Ash grinned, "Okay Houndoom, time to end the battle. Overheat on the pool, follow up with Giga Impact and Thunder Fang.

Although Wallace couldn't see much through the steam, he did hear Ash call out an Overheat attack on the pool. He thought about the attack and couldn't figure out what was being planned. With no clue what his opponent was up to, he opted for caution. "Tentacruel, wait out the flames in the bottom of the pool. Once the attack ends, use Toxic."

Ash smirked at the command, a stationary target would make his plan that much easier to pull off. He then looked through the steam and announced, "You only heard me order an Overheat, but I planned a little more than that."

As he spoke, a purple glow appeared in the middle of the field, right at the beginning of the flames that were being spewed. As the flames began dying down, the purple glow began moving towards the edge of the platform.

After a few seconds, Wallace remembered the swimming Houndoom had done to get to the main platform and realized that this dog might not mind getting a little wet if it meant scoring a direct hit. He also realized what the purple glow meant.

Wallace called across, "If you think your Houndoom can out power my Tentacruel in the water, you're sorely mistaken. Tentacruel, meet his Giga Impact with one of your own! Then end the battle with Poison Jab!"

At the bottom of the pool, another purple glow formed, before it took off towards the surface at the same moment Houndoom lunged off the platform. With an earth-shaking explosion, the two Pokémon met. As they collided and the attacks exploded, the steam was blown away and Wallace realized what Ash had done.

The two Pokémon were meeting about a foot above the surface of the water. Houndoom had managed to vaporize the top several feet of the pools water.

As the force of their attacks was about to blast the Pokémon apart, they launched their secondary attacks. Several powerful thrusts were made into Houndoom's body by poison-charged tentacles while an electrically charged mouth clamped down on Tentacruel. The power of the bite made the jellyfish flinch, giving Houndoom the chance to launch his final attack. An attack he had been charging on his own, unknown to his opponent and trainer. He opened his mouth and fired out a golden brown beam of energy.

The Hyper Beam smashed into Tentacruel and launched the unprepared Pokémon into the wall of the arena.

Having so many powerful attacks launched once more caused the arena to be shrouded in steam, caused by the attacks explosions. When everything had finally settled down, the sight was rather surprising.

Tentacruel lay on the ground unconscious at the base of the arena's wall. Several feet above the knocked out Pokémon, a large chunk of the wall had been destroyed by the impact Tentacruel had made with it. On the battlefield, Houndoom was panting heavily, barely able to remain standing while the water level appeared to have dropped by about five feet.

Ash grinned as he surveyed the field and looked at his Pokémon, "Great job Houndoom. That Hyper Beam was a nice touch. I figured you would go with another Dark Pulse, since that's normally what you're the most comfortable with, but you wanted to make sure you would end the battle. Good job, I'm proud of you."

The judge looked at the field and raised a flag, "Tentacruel is unable to battle, the winner is Houndoom."

Upon the announcement, the crowd which had become eerily quiet during the final attack erupted into cheering. Wallace recalled his Pokémon before glancing at Ash, "That was an impressive attack combination. For your Houndoom to launch that many powerful attacks in short order is incredible. On the other hand, the battle seems to have taken quite the toll on him, I don't think he'll last very long in the next match."

Ash shrugged, "Doesn't matter. I wasn't sure if he'd be able to defeat any of your Pokémon. Getting the one victory was my goal, now I'll see how much longer he can make it. Houndoom is a tough one and won't go down without a fight."

Wallace nodded, "That much has been made clear to me. Your Pokémon are beasts to be reckoned with. Well, let us continue this battle and determine its winner."

Up in the stands, Ash's friends watched the first battle in awe. Finally, Max spoke up, "I can't believe it, his Houndoom defeated Wallace's Tentacruel on a water field! I mean, that's crazy! Just how strong is this guy?"

Paul shrugged, "It's impressive, but not surprising. We already knew that Five was strong. Also, he didn't win by much. Houndoom is barely standing and I'm guessing the only reason Five doesn't call him back is because Houndoom's pride demands he fall in battle. You also have to realize that Wallace still has two Pokémon left, including his Milotic. Should he make an appearance, Five will be in serious trouble, as that is Wallace's strongest Pokémon."

Gary then put forth his own opinion, "That might be true, but Five knew that Wallace only uses water Pokémon, so if he has a Pokémon or two with the type advantage, that could neutralize the advantage Wallace would get from using his strongest Pokémon. I know Five has at least one Pokémon who has an advantage, and based upon his Pokémon's strength and diversity of moves, it's probably safe to say he has several Pokémon who can do serious damage to Wallace."

"True, but at this stage in the battle, Five can't look too far ahead," Brock interjected. "If he spends too much effort thinking about the future, he will lose in the present. For now, he has gained the lead, but now must defend it if he hopes to win."

Anabel turned to Misty, "Are these guys always like this? I mean, I've done a fair share of analyzing battles, but the extent to which these guys are doing it is crazy."

Misty shook her head, "I've never seen anything like this. My guess is the level of this tournament has them so excited that they're going overboard trying to analyze as much as they can. The more they know, the better they can prepare for battles. As a researcher, these intense battles offer Gary a chance to see things he doesn't normally get to see. It could also provide him with the inspiration to investigate something new. For Brock, he's a breeder, he loves seeing well trained and raised Pokémon. Also, after working as a Gym Leader and travelling with Ash for so long, he developed a habit of analyzing every battle to learn as much as possible to help either himself or Ash afterword's. For Paul, he's competing so he does this for his own personal knowledge. The more he can analyze potential opponents, the happier he is."

Anabel nodded, "I see. So since you're competing as well, why don't you analyze these battles like they do? I mean, Max is even getting into it."

"Well, prior to this tournament, I thought I was pretty good, but listening to the things these guys are observing is making me question whether I'm as good as I thought I was. For now, I'm learning as much as I can from them so I can perform at my best during this tournament. Max has turned Five into his idol and is trying to copy him by getting into this analyzing stuff. Now, let's get back to the battle, it looks as if it's about to resume."

Down on the battlefield, Wallace grabbed his next pokeball and threw it out. "Gyarados, let us show Five our power!" With that, a massive blue, tan, and white fish/dragon/snake appeared in the freshly refilled pool of water and glared at his opponent.

At the sight of the beast, Houndoom involuntarily flinched. Ash witnessed this and was rather surprised. "Wow Wallace, that is some Gyarados you have, it's been years since someone managed to intimidate Houndoom in battle. This should be fun."

Wallace grinned, "Well, it should be short at least. Gyarados, finish this battle with Surf."

Ash silently cursed as he saw the massive wave that was forming in the pool. "Houndoom, wait for the last second before jumping over it. Then hit Gyarados with Dark Pulse."

Houndoom nodded and tried to do that. Unfortunately, the wave was just too massive for Houndoom to avoid. The powerful attack slammed Houndoom back into the platform and drenched him in water. Once the attack ended, it was clear that Houndoom wouldn't be continuing in the battle.

The judge raised a flag, "Houndoom is unable to battle, the winner is Gyarados."

Up in the stands, Anabel watched the attack in wonder, "That was an incredibly powerful attack, even though Houndoom was tired, to take him down with just that one hit is impressive."

Brock nodded, "Yes, but Gyarados had the type advantage as well. If Houndoom hadn't been exhausted, he might have been able to avoid the attack, but after his battle with Tentacruel, he just didn't have the energy to do so. The other problem is that Houndoom isn't built for taking hits. He's an offensive Pokémon so it doesn't actually take too many hits to bring him down. Assuming the opponent is on the same level he is, anyways."

Anabel nodded, "That makes sense, but still, how is Five going to fight against this behemoth?"

"Well let's watch the battle and see. He's bound to have some plan for this," Max said.

After seeing Houndoom fainted, Ash reached into his pocket and pulled out a pokeball. "Sorry Houndoom, but you're going to have to rest in here for a bit. I'll let you out once this battle is over. Return." And for the first time in over a year, Houndoom was recalled into his ball.

Ash then put the ball away and grabbed a different one. "Well Wallace, this morning I got a great idea for how to battle you, so I think I'll show you. Jolteon, take the field and let's show the world your power!"

Wallace smirked, "Don't forget about the Toxic Spikes I've spread on the field, your Pokémon is going to start out injured."

Ash grinned, "Not quite. I watched the spikes and made sure they only landed on the main platform. You completely ignored the smaller platforms scattered throughout. Now, let me show you just how powerful my other Pokémon are."

In a flash of light, Jolteon appeared on the small platform nearest Ash. Before Wallace could give a command, Ash called out, "Jolteon, end this with a full power Thunder!"

Wallace heard the shouted command and gave his own, "Gyarados, dive down deep and avoid the blast!"

Ash grinned at this and spoke while Jolteon gathered as much energy as possible, "Wallace, as you know, the water will disperse the attack. Most electric attacks can easily be evaded with your strategy because the water simply breaks the attack down before it can reach its target. However, the stronger the attack and the more energy it holds, the further it can go without completely breaking down. This allows for a powerful electric attack to actually cover a wider area while still doing massive damage, making it nearly impossible to evade."

Wallace looked at Ash, "That might be true, but Jolteon is known for its speed, not its power."

At that comment, Ash's grin got even wider, "My Jolteon is special. Now go, show Wallace the error of his ways and end this."

With a mighty flash and bang, the entire world was lit up. For the majority of the audience, it was the most powerful Thunder attack they had ever seen. The entire stadium shook from the intensity of the blast and those who were facing the battlefield, whether their eyes were open or closed, were blinded. The boom of the thunder deafened all those in the stadium and left the audience with their ears ringing.

As Ash had said, it was too powerful to be dispersed and broken down by the water before reaching its target. Gyarados, who had been expecting safety from the attack, suddenly found himself in intense pain and unable to move his body. As the electricity coursed through him, he could do nothing but wait for the attack to end.

Having a double weakness to electricity, the attack devastated Gyarados. When the attack finally seized, electricity was seen coursing through the great fish's body and he slowly began floating towards the surface.

Ash was the first to recover from the attack and called out to Wallace, "I'm impressed Gyarados is still conscious after that blast. However, if you don't recall him now, I'll be forced to injure him more with another electric attack."

Wallace took a quick look at his Gyarados and sighed. He was clearly paralyzed and barely conscious. That attack had clearly ended the battle and Wallace didn't wish to see his Pokémon take an unnecessary attack. He knew he had lost this round. "Gyarados, you did a terrific job, but I know that you're barely staying awake. Take a good rest and battle again another day. Return." With those words, Gyarados was recalled to his ball.

The judge raised his flag, "As there are no substitutions in this battle, Gyarados is no longer able to battle. The winner of this round is Jolteon."

Up in the stands, the audience was beginning to recover from the powerful Thunder attack Jolteon had just fired. The devastating attack had amazed the people, but had scared them as well. Jolteon clearly held immense power.

Well, the attack scared most of them. Paul, however, found this incredibly amusing and was laughing at the spectacle. His friends looked at him like he was crazy.

"Paul," Dawn began, "What is so funny about that attack? I mean, I know it was powerful, but do you need to laugh at this?"

Once Paul calmed down, he shook his head, "No, it's not that. It's just I can't wait to battle Five. This guy has brought his Pokémon to incredible levels and I can't wait to get a chance to beat him myself. That was probably the most powerful Thunder attack I've ever seen. Then again, if I had Electivire charge his Thunder attack that long, it would probably be at least that powerful, if not more so. Still, Wallace underestimated Jolteon and got his Gyarados taken down because of it. I already know what Ash has planned for the next battle as well. This should be even more amusing."

Misty looked over at Paul, "What does he have planned for the next battle? If you're so sure about it, let us know as well."

Paul shook his head, "Nope. I don't want to ruin the surprise. On the other hand, if you've been watching this battle and listening to Ash speak, you should be able to figure it out as well."

"Well if you've figured it out, don't you think Wallace has as well?" Brock asked him.

Paul shook his head again, "No way. After that display of power, Wallace is going to be forced to watch out for it. There is one way to defeat Jolteon and I'm not sure if this field is set up to allow that to happen. Being on a water field could be his undoing here."

Gary nodded, "I think I see what you're getting at. I mean, if he goes in the water, what happened to Gyarados will happen again. That means he's now trapped with using a small Pokémon and the small platforms like Five is doing, or using his favorite Pokémon and powerhouse Milotic on the main platform. With the ability for electric attacks to cover a wide area in the water, it would be dangerous to enter it."

Max nodded, "That makes sense, but I still don't see what you're getting at. Can you explain it in more detail?"

Paul shook his head, "Nope. As a trainer, you need to be able to figure these kinds of things out yourself. Once you see the strategy, you'll understand. Now, let's watch Five, wrap things up here."

Back down on the battlefield, Wallace looked at Jolteon before facing Ash, "That was incredible. I have never seen a Thunder attack of that strength. Your Jolteon is amazing."

Ash grinned, "Yeah, she is incredibly powerful. She learnt about power from Pikachu. Since Pikachu taught her and Pikachu can't move very well, they focused primarily on power. Her speed and agility is no laughing matter, but unlike many Jolteon, this one has incredible electric power."

Wallace nodded, "That does make sense. However, I shall not underestimate your Pokémon again. This final Pokémon of mine will be more than enough to bring about an end to our battle. Now, Milotic, take the field and show us the beauty of your power!"

On the main platform of the arena, a large and beautiful Pokémon appeared. Milotic's appearance had the crowd swooning at his beauty. Ash didn't fail to notice the power he radiated as well. This was clearly a beast to be reckoned with.

When Ash saw Milotic appear he smiled. His plan was working. Instead of taking to the water as most water Pokémon would naturally do, Wallace had summoned Milotic to the main platform to prevent the risk of another super charged Thunder ending the battle. However, he also knew that although Milotic's movement was limited, this would still be a challenging battle. Jolteon had the power to make hiding in water useless, but Milotic didn't need to be in the water to cause some serious damage.

The other benefit to limiting Milotic to the main platform is that that was where the all the Toxic Spikes had been released and a Pokémon of Milotic's size would not be able to avoid them.

As Ash watched the beautiful Pokémon get poisoned though, Wallace was already calling out an attack, "Milotic, use Aqua Ring!" Wallace then turned to Ash, "You have done a good job of limiting my movement and forcing my Pokémon to become poisoned, but do you know about Milotic's special ability and the effect of Aqua Ring?"

Ash thought about it and smirked, "I see, that is a good strategy on your part. Using Marvel Scale to raise your defense because Milotic is poisoned, but heal all the poison damage with Aqua Ring. You understand water is a bad choice right now, but you were still able to use the field to your advantage. I'm sure this is part of why you're a champion."

Wallace grinned, "That may be true, but this battle has shown me and the world that you are capable of battling on this level as well. Unfortunately for you, my Milotic is not going to be going down. As my strongest Pokémon, he will certainly give me the win."

"We'll see about that," Ash said. "Now, Jolteon, let's have a little fun. Double Team and Agility. Then feel free to play around a bit."

Then, before anyone could process the command, Jolteon disappeared from the battlefield. For several seconds, Jolteon remained hidden, but then a Jolteon appeared on every one of the smaller platforms scattered throughout the water. Between all the copies of the Pokémon a small blur could be seen.

Wallace took in the situation and commanded his Pokémon, "Milotic, take out the copies with Hydro Pump."

Instantly, a powerful stream of water was launched from Milotic's mouth and blasted a copy of Jolteon. From there, it proceeded to spin in a circle to wipeout the remainder of the copies. However, this plan didn't quite work, because as soon as a copy was destroyed, it would reappear again. Milotic tried his hardest to remove them, but they just wouldn't stay gone.

Ash looked at this and grinned, "Jolteon loves to play around. One of her favorite games is to do this and have another Pokémon try to land an attack on her. With her speed, she can reset the Double Team as soon as it gets broken. She continuously moves between the copies so you have no idea where she truly is hidden. Her ability to change direction instantly allows her to avoid any attacks that move towards her. I wish you the best of luck in finding her and landing an attack. Now, Jolteon, use Quick Attack and Thundershock."

As Wallace watched, he saw the occasional blur slam into Milotic and leave a small electric discharge on his Pokémon. Milotic was slowly taking damage, and although it wasn't much, if this continued for long enough, he would be in trouble. Quickly, he came up with a counter, "Milotic, use Recover and then spread Attract around the platform."

Ash instantly knew what that meant and called out, "Jolteon, stay on the platforms and switch to Thunderbolt."

As Ash gave his command, Milotic was surrounded in a whitish aura and appeared to regain all the health he had lost from Jolteon's many quick strikes. Jolteon meanwhile had gone back to simply running between the platforms. Once Milotic finished recovering, he released a high quantity of hearts onto the main platform that would prevent Jolteon from getting close. Jolteon then began launching Thunderbolts onto the main platform which Milotic was easily able to dodge.

Wallace spoke up, "Without the water to spread out the effect of your attacks, they become a simple matter for Milotic to dodge. I might not be able to hit you right now, but you can't hit me either. This battle will simply become a battle of endurance, something I'm sure I'll win seeing as your Jolteon used quite a bit of energy in her last battle."

Ash sighed, "That may be true, but don't count me out just yet. So far I've simply been testing your move set and strategy for this battle. With my Jolteon's incredible speed and strength, I'm sure you've figured out her weakness. That means I have to be careful about how to attack so that Jolteon doesn't get taken down first."

"That is true. You have raised your Jolteon quite well, but it is a rather risky way of raising her. Triangle theory dictates that with such high strength and speed, her defense must be her weak point. Since Jolteon has a naturally low defense, a trainer would normally focus on increasing that as part of training, but it would seem you neglected it in favor of pure speed and raw power."

Ash grinned, "Yup. I saw no need for defense if my Pokémon couldn't get hit. Since Jolteon is naturally one of the fastest Pokémon in existence, if I maximized that even more, I figured defense would become irrelevant. A dangerous tactic indeed, but also incredibly effective if done right. As it stands, I have yet to come across a Pokémon that could match Jolteon's speed. However, with the power your Pokémon possesses, it would only take one solid hit to knock Jolteon out of this battle, so I have to proceed cautiously without slowing down. A difficult task against one such as yourself, but I believe it can be done."

Up in the stands, Ash's friends were watching this display in amazement and confusion. Max spoke up, "What are they talking about? What's triangle theory?"

Brock answered him, "It is a training idea about Pokémon. In its most basic form it says there are three aspects of training: strength, defense, and speed. You can try to balance the three corners of the triangle evenly as most people do, but you can also instead focus on two of the three corners of the triangle and leave the third one at a low level. By doing that, one aspect will be quite weak, but it will allow the other two to be much stronger that if you had trained all three equally. This is the most basic version of it, but if you extrapolate from there, you can get into the more advanced parts of the theory and truly help your Pokémon to grow."

Paul then decided to add his input, "Yeah, that pretty much covers it. However, to see the results of this training is incredible. It also seems his strategy worked out great. If Wallace had known how Five trained his Jolteon before sending out his third Pokémon, he might have chosen a faster Pokémon that would have been able to land a few hits on Jolteon. Instead, he went for his powerhouse who can take hits and deliver them, but doesn't have the speed to keep up with Jolteon. As it stands, Five has pulled this battle into his favor, although he still has a lot of work to do if he wants to win this battle."

Back down on the battlefield, Ash decided he had seen enough. "Jolteon, begin charging. You know what to do."

Wallace heard the command and retaliated, "Milotic, be on guard and prepare to use Hydro Pump. There's no telling what Five is planning, so fire once you get a lock on Jolteon, before she can launch her attack."

The crowd watched as the images of Jolteon began sparking with the currently charging electric power. At the same time, Milotic was beginning to glow a deep blue as he gathered the energy required for his Hydro Pump. After nearly a minute of this display, Jolteon made her move.

Faster than anyone thought possible, Jolteon appeared directly in front of Milotic's head. She then tapped her paw onto Milotic's nose and released a small electric current before jumping back into the air and releasing the massive amount of electricity she had gathered.

Wallace saw this happen and called out, "Dodge it and fire!"

To his credit, Milotic tried to dodge. However, the small electric current that Jolteon had released into him had paralyzed the large Pokémon, preventing him from moving. It did not, however, prevent him from firing his powerful Hydro Pump.

The two attacks did not collide. Instead, they passed each other by before both made contact with their targets. The result of the two powerful attacks was a pair of explosions. The first was where Milotic was slammed into the ground by a massive electric bolt, dealing massive damage and throwing up a huge cloud of dirt. The second explosion occurred about ten feet away from where Tentacruel slammed into the arena wall. This time it was Jolteon who made contact with the wall and this one left an even larger crater in it. As the attacks ended, it remained to be seen if either Pokémon had survived the blow.

Ash, however, was not going to be caught off guard in case Milotic survived. He knew that Jolteon would be knocked out by the blow, so he had her pokeball in one hand while in his other he held his third pokeball. He was not going to give Wallace the chance to possibly use recover and cancel out all the work Jolteon had done in the battle.

As soon as the explosions cleared, the judge raised his flag, "Jolteon is unable to battle, Milotic is the winner."

Before the crowd could even release a cheer, Jolteon was in her ball and Empoleon was shooting through the water towards where Milotic lay dazed on the main platform.

Right as Wallace opened his mouth to make his command, Empoleon slammed into Milotic with a full strength Drill Peck. Although Empoleon wasn't the fastest Pokémon, the water had allowed him to build up enough speed and power to end the final round before it could truly begin. Wallace could only watch in amazement as his most powerful Pokémon fell.

The judge saw the attack and the result of the attack and raised his flag once more, "Milotic is unable to battle, the winner is Empoleon. The winner of this preliminary battle is Five."

At this announcement, the crowd that had finally begun cheering Milotic's earlier victory was silenced. The sudden change in atmosphere made Ash chuckle. After several seconds of stunned silence, cheering broke out once more, only this time, it was for him.

Empoleon appeared at his trainer's side and Ash gave him a pat on the head. "Good work Empoleon. I had been hoping that Jolteon would finish Milotic off with that final Thunder attack, but she didn't have enough energy. Trying to use two super-charged Thunders is still a little bit beyond her capability. However, you did a terrific job of finishing the battle before Milotic could use another Recover. You might not have been able to show off much, but you did make a statement. Now, return and we will celebrate this victory later."

Ash then recalled his Pokémon as he walked over to Wallace and shook his hand once more. "Thank you for that battle Wallace. It was a wonderful battle and your Milotic surprised me with his ability to withstand that final Thunder attack."

Wallace shook his head, "No, I believe it is you who did spectacularly. It has been a long time since I lost a battle. The fact that your Jolteon did as much damage as she did was incredible. If that Thunder had had any more power, you wouldn't have needed a third Pokémon to defeat me. You did a marvelous job of controlling the battlefield and using your advantages the right way. Too often people face me with electric Pokémon and think that will give them the win. You didn't get cocky with the type advantage, you simply executed your strategy to perfection and earned a decisive victory over me, something very few people can claim to have. Your final tactic of paralyzing Milotic before launching your Thunder attack was well thought out and executed as well. I am in awe of your prowess on the field of battle. It is no surprise to me that you were able to shut down Team Rocket. With the skills you showed today, it is clear you would be more than capable of that. Also, now that I know who you are, I believe I can get the league to stop investigating you."

Ash grinned, "Well, the league's investigation of me hasn't bothered me yet, but if you can stop it before it does, that would be great. As for the battle, it was all about timing. If you had managed to use Recover before Empoleon landed his hit, this battle could have had a different outcome. Also, if this had been a full battle, Jolteon would be my only Pokémon with a clear type advantage, there is no telling how that battle would have turned out."

"That may be," Wallace said, "but do not diminish your victory here. Few can claim to have defeated a Champion under any circumstances. What you accomplished today is magnificent. I wish you the best of luck in this tournament, and should we meet up in a later round, perhaps we can see which of us would win in that full battle you mentioned. For now though, go celebrate this victory with your friends."

With those parting words, the two trainers turned around and exited the arena through their respective exits.

Up in the stands, the shock of Ash's victory was still being felt. Misty was the first to recover. "I can't believe it, Wallace lost. I mean, I knew Five was strong, but to defeat a champion, just how good is he?"

Gary was nodding his head slowly to that before he spoke up as well, "I know what you mean. That battle was spectacular, just as we predicted it would be, but Five controlled that battle almost the entire time. No matter what Wallace threw at him, he had an effective counter for it. That man, is on a whole other level."

"That is true, Gary," Brock continued, "I mean, the way that battle played out, even with the type disadvantage at the beginning, he was able to dictate the flow of battle. Once Jolteon came out, he was able to be even more devastating on the field. I know Five has talked a lot about winning this tournament, but I think I'm starting to believe he might have a chance at actually doing it now."

An audible groan was heard from the side, and everyone turned to see Paul. He looked at them and said, "You guys need to stop fawning over the guy. Yeah, he won a battle. So what? Wallace underestimated him twice. If this had been a true championship caliber battle, it would have gone differently. Also, Five still has some work to do with his Pokémon. Neither of Jolteon's Thunder attack's defeated their targets, even though they were super effective and should have. His Houndoom was as impressive as always, but he only won that battle because he was being underestimated. Empoleon only won his battle because he was able to launch a sneak attack. Had that been spotted before it succeeded, Wallace could have avoided it and had Milotic used Recover, at that point, Five would have been almost guaranteed a loss. Sure it was an impressive victory, but Five is not the super trainer you guys are making him out to be. If you want to see how a true trainer battles, come watch me beat Flint later today. That will be an impressive battle."

With that, Paul turned and walked out of the stadium. Once he left, Anabel turned to Dawn, "What's his problem? Can't he just show some appreciation for a good win?"

Dawn sighed, "Paul's a little over competitive sometimes. He doesn't want to appear weak and doesn't want to admit that Five did something impressive. He'll get over it though. Anyways, what are we all going to do now?"

"Well, I have to go find Five and heal his Pokémon," Brock announced. "With his popularity so high, he said he doesn't want to deal with crowds around the Pokémon Center. Besides, his Pikachu needs some treatment as well."

"I have a battle to prepare for. I'll see you guy's at Paul's battle later today," Misty said.

Max then spoke up, "I battle at the same time as Misty, so I'm going to get ready for that."

"Well, I'm going to support Max at his battle," May said.

Gary looked at the group, "I'll be with Misty at her battle. If you see Five though, congratulate him for me, that was an impressive win he had."

Dawn thought for a few seconds before deciding, "I'm going to go find Paul and make sure he's ready for his battle. I'll see you guys later then."

"I think I'll wander around for a bit and prepare for my battle later today," Anabel said.

With decisions made, the group split apart and went their separate ways. Once out of the arena and away from everyone, Anabel walked over to Brock, "Hey, do you mind if I come with you? I've already seen all of Ash's Pokémon and I want to congratulate him on his battle."

Brock nodded, "Sure, you can come. As long as Ash doesn't have a problem with it I don't mind having more people around."

-In front of the arena-

Ash walked out of the arena and was instantly mobbed. From all directions he had people poking him and shouting questions. He tried to force his way through, but the crowd didn't give. Everyone seemed determined to get him to talk. All the screaming and prodding was giving Ash a major headache.

Just when he thought he would snap, a loud voice was heard over the crowd, "Everyone back up and give Five room!" The voice of an Officer Jenny announced. The voice was clearly being amplified and everyone instantly quieted down and took a step back.

Once that was done, the Jenny could be heard speaking again, "Good choice, for those who don't know, failure to comply with my orders will lead to a swift ejection from the Indigo Plateau. No refunds and no more battles. We need order to run this tournament and if you get in the way of that, prepare to be made to leave. Now, stay back and let the competitor leave in peace."

As Ash walked through the crowd, he saw Officer Jenny near the back and smiled at her, "Thanks officer, your help is appreciated. It would have been a shame to have Pikachu paralyze everyone in order for me to make my escape."

Officer Jenny smiled, "Just doing my duty. I would have helped you after your last battle, but we weren't prepared for it ahead of time. Congratulations on your win and good luck with the rest of the tournament."

Ash nodded and began heading towards the forest when an older voice spoke up, "Terrific battle you had there, Five."

Ash turned and saw the president of the league looking at him with a smile on his face. Ash smiled, "Thanks Mr. Goodshow, this is a great tournament you have set up here and I'm just glad to be participating in it."

Mr. Goodshow smiled, "Oh, this tournament would be nothing without you marvelous trainers in it. Speaking of which, it's been a while since I last saw you compete, your improvement is rather surprising."

"I take it you know who I am then?"

"Oh yes, it really wasn't that hard to figure out. Your ability level has skyrocketed and your looks have changed, but your fighting spirit remains the same. Also, seeing as you were able to enter as Five and not your true identity, I can only assume that I'm not the first influential person to figure out who you really are."

Ash chuckled, "That's true. Scott found me first. It would seem you figured out both of my secrets, not that I'm surprised by that. Anyways, if you don't mind, I was going to get my Pokémon healed."

Mr. Goodshow nodded, "Of course, two of your Pokémon took quite a bit of damage in that battle. As for your secrets, it's hard to hide some things from the man who's running the entire tournament. Don't worry though, I won't be telling anyone."

Ash smiled, "Thanks. And Mr. Goodshow, it's nice seeing you again. It's been too long."

With that, the pair split up and went their separate ways. They had been talking while walking along the edge of the forest, but now that he was alone, Ash walked into it and headed towards his hidden lake.

As he walked, Ash released his Pokémon from their balls. Houndoom and Jolteon were clearly tired, but they had recovered enough energy to manage the short walk on their own. Ash looked down at them and grinned, "Good job out there you two. Houndoom, you did a great job managing to take down Tentacruel. You executed my orders and plan perfectly and managed to pull off the win. Good job. I probably should have pulled you before Gyarados attacked, but I knew that would just make you mad, so I let you fall in battle."

Houndoom acknowledged the remark with a snort and a grin. Ash chuckled, "Yeah, I know you could have won if you weren't tired, don't worry. Anyways, Jolteon, you also did a terrific job. The Thunder you used on Gyarados could have been a little stronger and taken him out, but that might have taken too much energy. You made the right choice there and it ended up being enough to get Wallace to withdraw Gyarados. As for Milotic, you did great avoiding his Hydro Pump's and keeping the Double Team going. Your final Thunder attack did enough damage that Empoleon had no trouble finishing the battle. You were in the battle and know what you need to work on. Those charged Thunder attacks take a lot of energy."

After that, Ash turned to look at Empoleon, "Well, as I said at the battle, you didn't get to show off much, but you did your job perfectly. You were able to land your attack before Wallace could call a counter. In the future, I will make sure you get a chance to show off your full power, don't worry."

At that, Empoleon nodded and the group continued walking through the forest. After a few minutes, they made it to the lake and saw a pair of people waiting for them.

Brock looked at Ash and grinned, "That was a great battle Ash. I remember back when I used to travel with you through all the regions and watched you compete. You were good then, but now, you're on a whole other level. Congratulations on the win."

Ash grinned, "Thanks Brock. That means a lot coming from you. I suppose I've gotten better, but mostly it's been my Pokémon. All I do is train them, a lot of the battling they do themselves. Speaking of which, can you help them heal up after that battle? Houndoom and Jolteon got hit pretty hard."

Brock nodded, "Sure, that's what I'm here for anyways. And stop selling yourself short, you did great as a trainer and a battler. Your Pokémon respond to you and what you see. They do the battling, but you direct the battle. The way that battle went, you outshone Wallace, which is quite the accomplishment."

"Yeah Ash, you were amazing. Your Pokémon commanded the field and dominated the battle. Nothing Wallace or his Pokémon did could faze you or your Pokémon. It was incredible to watch," Anabel said.

Ash turned to Anabel and smiled, "Well, thanks. My Pokémon and I have been training for quite a while to be able to perform at this level. It means a lot to see how it is paying off. Anyways, what brings you here? Don't you have a battle today?"

Anabel shook her head, "I have a battle, but not until after Paul's. I also wanted to ask a few questions about your battle. It was impressive, but I was wondering about some of the things you did."

Ash cocked his head, "Oh? Like what?"

"Well, for starters, why did you have Houndoom swim to the center platform? I mean, wouldn't it have been safer to have him jump on the smaller platforms to get there?"

Ash grinned, "Maybe, but then I would have used the smaller platforms. My goal was to get Wallace to lose interest in them. To make him think they weren't a part of my strategy. If that happened, it would hopefully get him to ignore them if he did anything to alter the field. Since Houndoom was my only Pokémon who would be using the main platform, if it got messed up, I didn't really care. On the other hand, I needed the smaller platforms to be in good condition for Jolteon. By drawing his attention elsewhere, I was able to preserve those platforms and give Jolteon a place to battle from."

Anabel nodded, "I get it, that makes sense. And your plan worked. Next question, your Jolteon was able to avoid all the Attract hearts on the main platform right before launching her final attack; why did you have her stop her earlier plan when the Attract attack was used?"

Ash shrugged, "Risk vs. reward. I could have continued doing damage, but one false move and Jolteon would have fallen in love, or whatever, with Milotic. Also, Milotic would just continue using Recover. I needed to change things up, make Wallace think his plan was working, and then launch a massive attack to hopefully end the battle. It was unfortunate the final Thunder didn't take out Milotic, but Empoleon did a great job of taking him out."

"Okay, final question; What would you have done if Milotic had used Recover before Empoleon had defeated him?"

Ash paused for a few seconds before answering. "I still would have won, but it would have been more of a challenge. Even using Recover, Milotic would still have been paralyzed. That would give Empoleon the speed advantage to dodge most of Milotic's attacks while landing several of his own. The battle would have been closer, but I would have still come out the victor."

Brock then reentered the conversation, "That is believable. I mean, your Houndoom took out Tentacruel with a type disadvantage. Empoleon would have had the advantage type-wise over Milotic in that battle, so in theory probably would have won, but you can't be sure. Milotic is Wallace's most powerful and prized Pokémon, he would go to great lengths to ensure Wallace the victory. In a battle like that, anything can happen."

Ash nodded, "That is also true. As much planning as I might do, there are other aspects to battle that are just as important. All planning with no heart will lead to a quick defeat. All heart with no planning is how I used to battle. It worked, to an extent. Anyways, that battle is over now, so how about Paul's battle? When and where?"

Brock looked over again, "2:00 in arena 2. Ice field. It's about noon now, so you have a couple hours."

Ash nodded, "Sounds good. I think I'm going to relax. When you finish with Jolteon and Houndoom we should work with Pikachu again."

With that, Ash walked over to the lake shore and sat down. He grabbed his remaining pokeballs and threw them out. "Well guys, we won our first major battle of the tournament. I have decided, however, that now, since Houndoom has been defeated once, it's time to show you guys off as well. We have two more preliminary battles. There are three of you who haven't battled at all yet. Staraptor and Porygon-Z, you guys will each get one of the remaining preliminary battles. Lucario, you will get the first battle of the second stage, meaning you'll get to take on four Pokémon instead of three. You have to wait a little longer, but you'll get to show off more. For the rest of the second stage, I'm planning on asking for double battles, so it will be two of you guy's against the opponents four Pokémon.

At that, the three Pokémon let out their cheers of approval. Ash grinned and continued, "Staraptor, make sure your wings are ready for it, people will expect them to be strong, but you need to show them that they still underestimated them. Porygon-Z, just do your thing. Your battle style is fun, just be prepared for everything. Lucario, remember what we've been working on lately? Go work on that some more, I want that to be perfected for your first battle. People will expect direct aura attacks from you; this should catch them off guard."

The three Pokémon nodded and left to go do some training. Ash then looked at Empoleon, "I know it seems unfair that you only get to make that one showing in the prelims, but just wait. Who knows what other challenges we might come across in the prelims? If we come across someone else who can defeat one of us, you will be my next Pokémon. On top of that, by only making the showing you did, people might underestimate you in the second round, giving us an advantage."

Empoleon nodded his head before laying down to rest. Ash returned his gaze to the lake and grinned, thinking about the tournament and all it still had left to offer. After a couple minutes, he realized someone was sitting next to him.

Ash turned his head to see who it was and asked, "What's on your mind Anabel? You look lost in thought?"

Anabel started slightly before smiling, "Oh, nothing really. This tournament has really opened my eyes though. I mean, I always knew there were trainers out there who battled like this and were better than me, but being a Frontier Brain has limited my ability to see all of this. I could have still travelled if I had wished, but I never realized just how much I was missing by staying put. I thought I had reached my peak and would be content just staying at this level, but participating in this tournament has inspired me to want to be better. You especially have inspired me, I mean, you were good when you beat me all those years ago, but seeing the vast improvements you have been able to make on top of that is inspiring. There is so much out there still, it's truly incredible."

Ash smiled, "Yeah, the world is an incredible place. I've travelled for years and seen many things people only dream of. I've met almost all of the legendary Pokémon, I've helped stop criminal organizations, heck, I defeated Team Rocket myself. I've seen Pokémon grow and transform, but I've seen just as many people grow as well. The world is vast and I know that it is still hiding many secrets. It serves as a constant reminder that I still have much to learn. I mean, just a little over a year ago, a single wild Pokémon defeated my entire team."

At that, Brock turned his head, "I didn't really mean to eavesdrop or anything, but did you just say a single wild Pokémon defeated your entire team a year ago? Wasn't that the same time you were getting ready for your final assault on Team Rocket's HQ?"

Ash nodded, "Yeah, it was about a week before I left for that. I wanted to do some final training before heading down and finishing them off. I won't say where, but I came across a wild Lucario. A rare Pokémon, but his strength was incredible. He's actually the one that gave me the idea for my Lucario's current training. And before you ask, no, I won't tell you. It's going to be a surprise for the tournament."

Anabel sighed, "Fine. Well, if you won't tell us about that, can you tell us another story? You already told me how you got your Houndoom and Jolteon, how about a different one?"

"Yeah, I'm kind of curious about that. Most of the Pokémon you catch tend to have an interesting story," Brock said. "How about your Staraptor? I believe I once heard that your mother saw a Staravia fly off after dropping one of your letters, is your Staraptor that same one?"

Ash nodded, "I suppose I can tell you that. It's not dreadfully exciting, but it is a story."

-2 and a half years ago. Near the entrance to the Rock Tunnel.-

A young man was walking through the forest. On his shoulder a Pikachu sat while at his side was a Houndoom. As the group walked, the sound of a Pokémon's cry was heard.

Pausing only for the briefest moment, the young man took off towards the sound of the cry. After running through the forest for several minutes, he came upon a river. At the side of the river, a small battle appeared to be taking place.

On one side of the battle were several Pokémon. A Pidgeotto and a pair of Golbat's were surrounding a Starly. As Ash watched, the three larger Pokémon attacked the smaller Starly. Ash was about to jump in, but the small Pokémon succeeded in fighting back his opponent's, at least for the moment.

The three went back to surrounding the Starly before launching another strike. This time, the Pidgeotto distracted the Starly while the pair of Golbat's swooped in and landed hits with their Wing Attack's. Before the three could launch any more attacks though, Ash ran into the battle with his Pokémon at his side.

Before the three attackers could escape, Houndoom had knocked out both Golbat's with a Flamethrower while Pikachu had electrocuted the Pidgeotto. Ash then ran over to the Starly and began checking him for wounds. He looked at the little bird before asking, "What are you doing all the way over here in Kanto? This is a long way from your home."

The Starly just looked at Ash before turning his head to the side. Ash saw this and sighed, "I see, that's what those Pokémon were saying as well? They were trying to kick you out and send you back to Sinnoh, so you were just fighting back. Well, I like you. You're strong and stand up for yourself. Is there any chance I can get you to do a favor for me?"

Starly looked at Ash in question before hesitantly nodding his head. Ash smiled, "Thanks. You see, you're not the only one who can't go home. I was wondering if I could get you to drop a letter off at my house for me, to let my mother know I'm doing all right."

Starly thought for a few moments before jumping down to the ground and staring intently at Pikachu. He then gestured with his wing and Ash sighed, "You want to fight? If I win you'll deliver the letter. Sounds good, but Pikachu can't fight, just launch Thunderbolts. How about you battle my Eevee, she's new to my team and could use the practice?"

Starly nodded, so Ash released Eevee from her ball. "Start things off with Double Team, then Quick Attack."

Instantly, ten copies of Eevee appeared, surrounding Starly. After a few seconds, a blur slammed into him, sending him tumbling a few feet. Before Eevee could hit again though, Starly took to the skies and hovered just out of Eevee's range. Next, Starly began launching Air Slash's at the copies of Eevee, searching for the original one.

"Eevee, keep the Double Team going, but throw in a Sand-Attack as well. Keep it on the ground to obscure the sight of the copies."

As commanded, more copies of Eevee appeared, before being obscured by the sand and dirt that was now floating in the air, making it even harder for Starly to target from afar.

As Ash had hoped, this got Starly to reenter the battle at melee range. Seeing Starly fly down with an Aerial Ace made Ash grin. "Eevee, meet him head on with Tackle, then end it with Bite."

Once Starly had gotten close enough, Eevee shot out and tried to ram into the bird. Unfortunately, the Aerial Ace outpowered the Tackle and knocked Eevee back. As Eevee was launched back though, she latched onto Starly with her jaws, bringing the bird with her.

The two collided with the ground, sending up a cloud of dust. Once the dust cleared, both Pokémon were on their feet, panting, but still willing to fight. Before they could though, Ash walked over, "That's enough fighting for now. If you guys do much more, someone could get hurt and I'd rather not see that happen."

Ash then bent down and patted Eevee's head, "That was a good fight Eevee, I'm proud of you, you've gotten much stronger." Eevee nodded before licking Ash's hand.

Ash then turned to Starly, "Well, what do you think? Do you mind taking a letter over to Pallet Town for me?"

Starly looked at Ash and nodded his head. Ash grinned before taking out a letter and handing it to Starly. He then pulled out a map and showed Starly how to get to Pallet Town. With one final cry farewell, the Pokémon took flight.

-One week later-

Ash turned to his companions and grinned, "Well guys, it's time to leave this area. I think our next training destination should be the Seafoam Islands."

His Pokémon nodded, but before they could head off, a small bird flew out of the sky and landed in front of Ash. It smiled at him and called out. After a few seconds, Ash smiled, "Hey Starly, you're back. I wasn't sure if you'd come back here or not. Thanks for delivering the letter for me. I'm getting ready to head to a new destination for training. If you want to join me, feel free."

-Present day, by the lake-

"And that is how I got a Starly who wound up evolving into my Staraptor. He had wound up in Kanto somehow, then the natives hadn't taken too kindly to him so I stepped in and helped out. After that, he delivered a letter to my mother for me before coming back and asking to join me."

Anabel looked at Ash, "So do you know why he was in Kanto instead of his home?"

Ash nodded, "Yup, but if you want to know, ask him yourself. It's not my place to divulge things my friends wish to remain secret."

Anabel nodded, "I understand. So what was with you telling Staraptor to work on strengthening his wings?"

"Well, as you know, many attacks that birds learn involve the use of their wings. The stronger the wing, the stronger the attacks. Also, it prevents Staraptor from weakening defensively after using Close Combat, a move that Staraptor is rather fond of."

"And does it work?" Brock asked. "I mean, by strengthening his wings, are you able to prevent the fallback of Close Combat? I've talked to people who have tried that before, and they don't normally have much success with it."

Ash laughed, "Of course most people don't have much success with that. The wings are thin and naturally a vulnerable spot for a bird. By using Close Combat, you are putting all kinds of extra strain on the wings. Some people combat this by only having Staraptor use their claws in a Close Combat attack. Even those that strengthen the wings only have limited success due to the natural fragility of the wings. To make up for that, Staraptor almost purely trains his wings. By doing so, the wings gain strength and defense. It also allows him to fly faster with more power. If you ever examine his wings closely and compare them to other Staraptor's, you will notice the clear signs that point to power and durability of my Staraptor's wings. Also, when you see him battle, I'll show it off a little for you. Just you wait."

Brock nodded, "That sounds like a plan. And I think I will examine your Staraptor if I get the chance to. Heck, I want to see all of your Pokémon up close. Also, speaking of how you train your Pokémon, do your train all your Pokémon how you trained Jolteon, focusing on only two corners of the triangle?"

Ash shook his head, "Nope, Jolteon is the only one fast enough that I felt safe ignoring defensive training. As for the others, I still have a primary focus, but I more evenly distribute the training."

After talking with Brock and Anabel, as well as working on Pikachu's special training for a while, it was time to head back to the arena's in order to watch Paul's battle.

As the trio left the woods, many people noted that Ash no longer only had Houndoom at his side. Empoleon walked alongside his trainer on the other side while Jolteon led the group.

Brock turned to Ash, "So, are you sure about letting more of your Pokémon out? Won't this increase the chance of one of them picking a fight?"

Ash shrugged, "At this stage of the tournament, if people don't know how to behave, my Pokémon will simply be teaching them their place in the world. If this was a simple city or town, then by all means I would keep them in their balls, but although they don't mind being in them, my Pokémon prefer to be able to wander free of their confines. Besides, they deserve a little time in the outside world after their recent victory. Now come on, let's get to arena two for Paul's battle."

As the trio settled into their seats in arena 2, the rest of the group walked over. Max was the first to notice the trio as well as the extra Pokémon laying on the ground. He immediately rushed over, "Hey Five, can I look at your Pokémon? Why are they out now? Your battle was amazing!"

Ash smiled at him, "You really remind me of me. Yes you can look at them, if I didn't want people to see them; I'd leave them in their balls. Just don't go too crazy, they're nice, but if you annoy them, you might get blasted by some attack or another. How about you, how was your battle?"

Max instantly deflated, "Well, I almost won, but my opponent had a Tyranitar that just wouldn't go down no matter what I did. I tried everything, but none of my attacks seemed to be doing any damage."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, Tyranitar's are rather powerful and have high defensive capabilities. However, it sounds to me like you tried to pound your way through one. Would that be correct?"

Max thought about it and nodded, "Yeah, but I was using attacks that should have been super effective, but they still didn't do much of anything."

"That doesn't surprise me. Trying to overpower a Tyranitar is not something you should be doing unless you know your Pokémon have enough brute strength to do so. The best way to take down a Tyranitar is to avoid its attacks so it wastes energy. Then, target weak points on its armor hide to hit with attacks. As the Tyranitar wastes its energy attacking, you whittle away its health with quick precise strikes to weak points. It might take time, but it will defeat the Tyranitar."

Max nodded, "I see, that makes sense. Still, I can't believe how high Tyranitar's defense was. Oh well, I'm still in the tournament and if I battle that guy again, I'll defeat him for sure."

Ash nodded before turning to the rest of the group, "How about you Misty, how was your battle?"

Misty grinned, "I won, of course. There's no way I would lose in the preliminaries."

Ash nodded, "Of course not. What if you drew a match against someone like, say, Cynthia? Would you still be so confidant?"

Misty glared at Ash, "Shut up! I'm not going to be losing to anyone, not even you!"

Ash simply smiled at her, "Of course. Now, how about we watch Paul's battle? See if he's as good as he claims to be."

And that remarked sparked an outburst from Dawn, "Paul's going to kick Flint's ass! He's the best trainer in this tournament, he won't lose to anyone!"

Down on the field, Paul had just walked out of his trainer's room and heard Dawn's outburst. He looked towards the noise and saw the rest of their group up there, in particular, he saw Ash smirking at him. Paul glared at Ash before returning his focus to the field.

On an ice field, against a fire trainer, he had to be careful not to turn it into a water field. Or maybe that would be a good idea, but not until he was ready for it."

Paul arrived at the center of the field and shook hands with Flint, "Hey Flint, good luck in this battle, I'm not going to lose, at least not willingly."

Flint grinned at Paul, "Well, it sounds like you're all fired up for this battle! I too am fired up, there have been some spectacular battles today, but let's make this the hottest of them all!"

Paul smirked before returning to the trainer's box and grabbing a pokeball. Flint took his position and also prepared a pokeball for the battle.

The judge saw that the competitors were ready and raised his flag, "This preliminary battle between Flint, of the Sinnoh Elite Four and Paul, of Veilstone City is about to commence. This will be a 3-on-3 battle with no substitutions or time limit. The battle will be over once one trainer is out of usable Pokémon. Begin." With that, he lowered his flag, signaling the start of the battle.

Immediately, both trainers threw their pokeball, releasing their Pokémon. In front of Paul, a large bear like Pokémon appeared and let loose a mighty roar. At the sound of Ursaring's roar, Flint's Houndoom released one of his own.

Paul called out the first attack, "Ursaring, end this now. Earthquake and use our special Close Combat!"

Immediately, Ursaring began stomping the ground, causing massive tremors to shake the field and splinter the ice. The shaking didn't disturb Houndoom too much, but the splintered ice caved way into crevices, preventing Houndoom from being able to move freely as he wished.

Flint saw the dilemma and called forth, "Repel him with Flamethrower!"

Houndoom grunted and opened his maw, spewing flames directly into Ursaring's face. The blast didn't appear to affect Ursaring, as he continued barreling towards Houndoom with two glowing arms.

Up in the stands, Ash chuckled, "I see, an interesting improvement to his strategy, more damage, but doesn't fix the initial problem I caused for it."

Down on the field, Ursaring's glowing arms and fists began making contact with Houndoom, brutalizing the Pokémon and dealing massive damage.

When the Close Combat ended, Ursaring was standing over a fainted Houndoom, panting and burnt, but not down. The judge raised his flag, "Houndoom is unable to battle, the winner is Ursaring."

Flint looked at his fallen Pokémon and recalled him. He then looked at his opponent who had defeated his Pokémon with such speed, "What was that final attack? Close Combat should have hurt Houndoom, not made him faint."

Up in the stands, Gary looked at Ash, "What do you mean by improvement and not fixing the initial problem?"

Ash turned to him, "Well, when we battled, it was my Houndoom against his Ursaring. He used Earthquake and Hammer Arm to try and defeat me. However, I superheated the ground, preventing Ursaring from reaching Houndoom. Paul didn't change anything to prevent that from happening again, but he super-charged his Hammer Arm by combing it with Close Combat. Using both arms instead of just one doubles the attack's power, combining it with Close Combat does that again. Combined with the fact that the Flamethrower burnt Ursaring, activating his ability Guts, Ursaring was able to do even more damage.

"That first round was short, but Paul did several important things. He destroyed the field, meaning he wanted to do that. He is now in control of the battle environment. On top of that, he immediately established his power and showed it to his opponent. Flint is going to have to do something major to get back in this battle."

Gary nodded, "That is impressive. Flint's an Elite, yet Paul is showing him up so far. Then again, it's early, anything could happen. Let's watch."

Down on the field Flint nodded in understanding, "I see, you combined two super effective attacks along with your ability to deal extra damage. It would seem I underestimated you. Oh well, this next Pokémon should be enough to bring me back into this battle." Flint grabbed a new pokeball and tossed it, "Drifblim, take to the skies and let us battle."

Above the cracked ice, a large purple blimp like Pokémon appeared. Paul saw the large Pokémon and inwardly groaned, this would not be a good matchup for him. On the outside, he simply hardened his face and gave out his commands, "Charge up Shadow Claws and launch a few barrages of Stone Edge. Knock that ghost blimp out of the sky."

Flint laughed, "Seems like you're in a tough spot here. Ursaring doesn't have much in the way of attacks that can actually hurt my Drifblim. Now, use a barrage of Thunderbolts to end this."

Drifblim made a cry of acknowledgement and a glowing orb of electricity appeared on each of his four legs. After charging for a few moments, each leg released its own Thunderbolt. The first round simply destroyed the Stone Edge attack, but after that, they began landing near a frantically dodging Ursaring.

Paul gritted his teeth as he watched Ursaring try to avoid all the thunderbolts. This was becoming quite problematic as it continually caused more damage to the field and Paul didn't want the field to get any worse. Yet. "Ursaring, send back the Thunderbolts with Brick Break!"

Flint smirked, _Checkmate._ "Thunder."

Paul cursed when he realized that Flint had played him. Before Ursaring could dodge, Drifblim drew his four legs together and combined their electricity into one super charged blast. As the bolt of lightning headed for Ursaring, the bear could only watch in horror and try to block the blast with his charged claws.

The attempted block didn't do much, and Ursaring would up taking almost the full force of the attack. Once the attack died down, Ursaring attempted to struggle to his feet. The attempt didn't last long though, as the damage from the burn combined with the powerful Thunder attack was enough to finish him.

The judge raised his flag, "Ursaring is unable to battle, Drifblim is the winner."

Up in the stands, Ash chuckled, "Well, it seems like Paul hit a snag. I'd heard rumors about Flint having some strong non fire types, but I hadn't seen any until now. It seems he had the perfect counter for Ursaring. How's Paul going to pull himself out of this one? I don't think the field can take much more damage."

Dawn glared at Ash, "Shut up Five! Paul's going to win this battle, no problem. You'll see."

Ash looked at her and chuckled, "Calm down there, I wasn't doubting Paul. I'm sure he can win, I'm just curious to see how he does it. It's clear he didn't want the field to take any more damage, but Flint destroyed it even more. Paul's going to have to adjust his strategy now."

May turned to Ash, "How do you know Paul didn't want the field damaged any more?"

"Simple, Paul tried to redirect a Thunderbolt. The Thunderbolts were destroying the field and Paul didn't like that. Instead of waiting for Drifblim to run out of energy to launch the Thunderbolts, he had Ursaring try to counter them, giving Flint the chance to get the win. If field damage wasn't an issue, it would have been smarter to keep dodging and wait for Flint to make it a close range battle."

Back on the battlefield, Paul was reassessing his strategy. The field was more beat up than he'd like, but he thought it would still work out for him. Reaching for a pokeball, he grinned at Flint, "Good job Flint, defeating my Ursaring. You won't be defeating my next Pokémon though, this guy is a little tougher. Aggron, take to the field for battle."

On the broken ice field, a massive gray metal-plated Pokémon appeared. Aggron gave a loud roar before locating his opponent. Paul called out his command. "Aggron, flyer removal pattern. Take down the blimp."

Aggron grunted and released a massive Blizzard into the upper air. Flint called out, "Drifblim, lower yourself and use Shadow Ball!"

As Drifblim dropped altitude, Paul grinned. Immediately, Aggron released an Ice Beam that scored a direct hit on Drifblim, severely injuring the flyer and making him crash into the ground. Then, before he could recover, Aggron's right fist made contact with a devastating Shadow Claw, ending the battle.

The judge raised his flag, "Drifblim is unable to battle, Aggron is the winner."

"Well that was a quick battle," Max stated.

Ash turned to him and nodded, "That is true, but that is just how these guys battle. They are both about dealing damage before the opponent can react, that's not a formula for long battles. Their Pokémon are dealing damage and taking hits without any dancing around. Paul only slows down his battling against people who can compete on his level, so it would appear to me that Paul doesn't consider Flint enough of a threat to require anything but brute strength to defeat. As for Flint, Paul is matching and even surpassing him in pure power, something he isn't used to having happen, so this battle has left his comfort zone. We'll see how it all plays out."

"How do you know so much about Paul"?" Dawn asked.

Ash shrugged, "I've met his type before. He's stronger than most, but that is how his type battles. You can tell if he has respect for you as a trainer if he slows down his battle and throws more than pure power at you. Or I suppose a good way to put it is that Paul likes to push you hard and not give you a chance to recover before he finishes knocking you out. He only slows down when forced to."

Down on the field, Flint looked at Paul, "That was an impressive strategy. Drawing me in close by having me hide from your Blizzard then finishing off with a powerful ghost move. You are clearly a talented young trainer, but this fiery battle isn't over yet. Infernape, lets heat up this battle!"

With an impressive roar, the fiery monkey appeared on the ice field. Paul grinned, "Well, this should be fun. Let's see if your monkey can make me use a third Pokémon. Aggron, start off with Iron Defense."

Aggron obeyed and his metal skin took an extra sheen, indicating that it had just hardened immensely, making things even more difficult for Flint.

Flint grinned, "Let's see if that attack did anything for you, Infernape, Flare Blitz!"

"Aggron, meet him head on with Iron Head."

The two Pokémon charged each other, one covered in flames, the other with a glowing head lowered at his opponent. As the two made contact, an explosion occurred and flint called, "Infernape, Flamethrower!"

Instantly, a stream of flames was being fired at Aggron who simply stood and took the attack. When the attack ended, Paul looked into the cracks in the ice and grinned, _Just a little more, then it will be time._ "Aggron, Dragon Claw!"

"Infernape, Close Combat and then Overheat!"

Once more, the two Pokémon met, only this time, Infernape had the clear advantage, dealing massive damage with his fists and feet before releasing a stream of flames directly into Aggron's face. As soon as the attack ended, Infernape jumped back and away from Aggron.

Flint looked at his opponent and smirked, "You were thinking I'd have a hard time defeating that bulky Pokémon with my Infernape? You should know better than to underestimate your opponent. This battle is over, Infernape, one more Close Combat, then Flamethrower."

As Infernape prepared his attacks, Paul grinned, "Flint, it is you who shouldn't underestimate your opponent. Aggron, end this with Earthquake!"

Up in the stands, Max was confused, "What is Paul doing? Is he really going for a double knockout? If Aggron uses Earthquake, both Pokémon will fall into the water and faint. I thought Paul wasn't that kind of a trainer anymore."

At the mention of water though, Ash perked up, "Water? I wonder if Paul taught that to his Aggron. I've heard it's possible, but I've never seen it done before."

Max looked at Ash, "What are you talking about? Taught what to his Aggron?"

Brock looked over, "Wait, you mean _that_? I have heard it's possible, but still, I've never seen it done either."

"What are you guys talking about?" Max nearly screamed.

Ash looked at him and smirked, "Wait and see young trainer. Prepare to me amazed."

With a huff, Max turned back to the battle, only for his jaw to drop at what he saw.

Down on the battlefield, Flint was having a similar experience, "How did you teach Aggron to SURF?"

As the Earthquake had destroyed what remained of the battlefield, both Pokémon had fallen into the water. Flint had assumed it was a double knockout until he saw Aggron appear above the battlefield riding a massive wave of water. With a final crash, the wave slammed into the ground and Aggron was deposited just off the field near the wall.

By this time, the entire ice field had been destroyed. In its place was a massive pool of water with a few ice cubes in it. Also floating in the water was an unconscious Infernape.

The judge raised his flag, "Infernape is unable to battle, Aggron is the winner. The winner of this preliminary battle is Paul."

Paul looked at Flint and smirked, "I have many surprises in store. This is what you get for underestimating me."

With that, Paul turned around and walked out of the arena.

Up in the stands, Ash was laughing at everyone's surprised face. Once Max recovered, he turned to Ash, "How did that happen? That shouldn't be possible. How can Aggron use Surf?"

Ash shrugged, "I don't know why you think I know everything. I'm a trainer. I train Pokémon. If you want to know why Pokémon can do what they do, you ask a researcher, not a trainer. All I know is that I've heard about Pokémon such as Aggron using Surf before and thought it odd. Now that I've seen it happen, I'm still confused, but at least I know for a fact that it's possible."

"Before you start asking me, I don't know either," Gary announced. "I may be a researcher, but I haven't studied everything. Still, that was an impressive battle. Paul showed power and cunning in that battle. Flint would try a counter, but nothing really worked for him. Paul was always at least a step ahead. Today has been an interesting day for the tournament. First Wallace lost, now Flint has lost. It's not a good day for established members of the league."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, well, that was just bad luck on their part. Flint was never a good matchup for Paul. Someone like Lucian would do much better. If you purely rely on power, Paul will either out power you, or turn your power against you. There needs to be more to your battling in order to face up to him and stand a chance. Now Anabel, when do you battle?"

Anabel looked up, "Oh, I battle at 3:30, so in about an hour. I'm going to be in arena 3, an earth field. I battle a gym leader from Johto named Whitney."

"Ah, Whitney, I've heard a bit about her," Ash said.

Anabel looked at him in question, "Oh? Anything useful you mind sharing with me?"

Ash shrugged, "From what I've heard, her Miltank is her power fighter. Likes to use rollout to wipeout any opponent. If I was battling her, I wouldn't try to simply use brute force to stop her. Slow her down with some move or another before stopping her completely with a stronger Pokémon. From that point, Miltank would go down pretty quick to a few point blank attacks. That's just my opinion though. You do what you want and have a fun battle."

Anabel nodded, "That sounds like a good strategy. Anyways, shouldn't we go find Paul and congratulate him on his victory?"

Ash shrugged, "No. I think Dawn left to go and do that, but I at least am not going anywhere near a crowd. I'm still too popular for that. Paul's going to be dealing with the same problem now, so I'm going to leave him to the reporters for now. If I run into him later though, I'll be sure to give him a hard time about his battle."

May looked over at Ash, "And what was wrong with Paul's battle? You seemed to think he did a pretty good job."

Ash shrugged again, "It wasn't as amazing as he said it would be. I mean, he almost had his plan ruined by getting the field destroyed before his Aggron came out. Also, his Ursaring had no viable counter to Drifblim. From Paul, I expect better than that. Oh well though, he got the result he wanted, and that's all that really matters."

As the group of friends left the arena, a group of fans spotted Ash. Ash noticed this and turned to his friends, "It would appear that I've been spotted. I'm going to disappear now and show up either later today or tomorrow. Hopefully by then, my fame has worn off a little."

Then, before anyone could object, Ash, along with his Pokémon, vanished. May looked at where Ash had been standing, "What did Five just do? How did he disappear like that?"

Brock just shook his head, "I have no idea. That guy is just full of surprises."

Anabel nodded, "Yeah, he seems to be rather good at surprising everyone, that was just another example of it. Next time you see him though, ask him. He might even tell you. Anyways, I'm going to go relax and clear my head before my battle starts."

With that, Anabel walked off. After walking aimlessly for a few minutes, she decided to go where she knew she'd be able to relax and headed off into the forest. Another couple minutes later and she was by the lake. She was also unsurprised to see Ash lying on the ground in front of it, his Pokémon at his side.

Ash turned his head and looked at Anabel once she arrived in the clearing. "Found me already? Here I was hoping I'd be able to hide for a little bit."

Anabel let out a little laugh, "Ash, if you wanted to hide, you should have gone somewhere nobody would look. Besides, I wasn't looking for you, I wanted to clear my head before my battle."

Ash nodded, "This is a great place to do that. Just sit down and relax. Get away from the noise and activity of civilization for a while. Well, don't let me get in the way. I think I'm going to take a nap; wake me up when you leave for your battle."

"Wait, before you go to sleep, how did you do that disappearing trick of yours?"

Ash laughed, "That, my dear friend, is a secret."

With that, Ash closed his eyes and fell asleep.

When he woke up, he took a look around and sighed, "Well, I told her to wake me up so I could see her battle, but I guess she didn't listen. Oh well. Hey Lucario, want to spar? I just slept for three hours so if I'm going to be sleeping tonight I need to burn off some energy."

Lucario walked over to Ash and nodded before taking on a fighting stance. Ash stood up and followed suit.

After sparring for a while, Ash felt a presence approaching and sent Lucario back into the forest. Ash turned around and saw Nando walking out of the forest. Ash quirked an eyebrow, "Hey Nando, what brings you out here?"

Nando looked at Ash and smiled, "Ah, hello Five. I was simply walking through the forest and heard the sounds of battle. Now that I see it was you who was making the noise, I have a question for you."

Ash nodded, "Alright, ask away."

"Well, what did you hope to accomplish by going by the name Five? I mean, you aren't fooling anybody are you?"

Ash laughed, "So you figured out who I am? I guess I have a question for you then. How come so few people recognize me? The only ones who seem to recognize me on sight are those who I didn't know very well. My old friends all seem to have a hard time realizing who I am. When I asked Gary, he said it was because I look so much older than I used to. Something about them not seeing me as I did the bulk of my growing making it hard to recognize me."

Nando paused before answering, "That might be part of it, but I think part of it has to do with other more subtle changes. You see, you still have your same drive and enthusiasm, but you have it more controlled now. You also are more strategic of a trainer, something you never used to be. Those that knew you well were probably more accustomed to the subtleties that have changed since you disappeared. They realize that in the big picture, you're still the same, but might not recognize you as Ash unless you prove it to them. If you don't mind me asking though, what have you been up to? I hear many rumors during my wanderings, but I'm curious as to what you have to say."

Ash thought for several moments before responding, "Well, for the first year I simply trained. During my second year, I took the name Five and began beating down Team Rocket. At the end of the second year, I attacked their HQ and shut them down. For the past year, I've been training on Mt. Silver; growing stronger and helping my Pokémon. What rumors did you hear about me? I tried to stay hidden as much as possible during my travels."

Nando looked over at Ash and smiled, "The Pokémon tell me many things. I travel as a bard and make music with Pokémon. Although I compete in contests and battles, the bulk of my time is simply spent living in nature with the Pokémon. You might hide from the people, but many of the Pokémon knew of a mysterious man who wondered the world and helped Pokémon in need. They also told me that he was on a mission of revenge against the dark forces. What struck me as strange was that sometimes the person was referred to as Five, other times as Ash. Now that I've met you here, I understand why."

"I see. The wild Pokémon told you. I never even considered hiding anything from them, I didn't realize anyone would be able to communicate with them as you seem to have done," Ash stated.

Nando nodded, "My work as a bard has helped me reach a level of understanding with Pokémon. I don't understand them perfectly, but I am in tune with them. By singing and making music with them, I am able to learn much of their world. From what I learned, you seem to be able to do something similar."

"Yes indeed. I suppose I can tell you a little about that," Ash said. "I use aura. It allows me to do some cool things. At first, I didn't do much with it, just kind of ignored it. But once I started my journey against Team Rocket, I figured I could use a little extra help, so I learned to use my aura. It allows me to communicate with Pokémon as well as several other tricks."

"I see," Nando said. "That sounds like it would be rather fun. I wish I had that ability, but I'm more than content with my ability to communicate with Pokémon as it is. How long have you known about this little place by the lake? It is a rather peaceful area that I'm sure is good for both relaxing and training."

Ash nodded, "Yeah, it's good for both of those. I found it before the tournament began. I was walking through the forest in order to relax when I came upon this spot. Ever since, I've used it as a base of sorts. I sleep at the Pokémon Center sometimes, but my Pokémon prefer it out here and I don't really mind. This place is wonderful for training Pokémon and clearing your head when you need to."

"Yes, I can tell this place would be good for that. Anyways, Ash, are you planning on telling your friends who you are? I'm not going to tell them, but I'm sure they'd like to know that their new friend just so happens to be their old friend as well."

Ash smiled and shook his head, "Not yet. I will tell them, but not yet. I plan to tell them at the end of the second round, but the way this tournament is going, who knows when it might come out?"

Nando grinned, "Yes, this has been quite the tournament so far. Full of surprises, like an unknown trainer defeating a champion. Then, on the same day, another elite trainer, a member of the elite four, was also defeated. Then there is also talk of a trainer who musically and elegantly commands his Pokémon."

Ash laughed, "Talking about yourself now? I haven't listened to much of the gossip going around, but I suppose you do. Are there any trainer's I should be keeping an eye out for?"

Nando just smiled mysteriously, "Well, after today's show, most trainers are scared to face you or Paul. Apart from the elites, it seems you two are the ones who are considered to have the best shot at winning. However, none of the trainers here are pushovers, so be on guard."

Ash nodded, "Oh yeah, I know that much. I mean, I might be a favorite, but I know that you for one are quite skilled and won't go down without a fight. On top for that, Anabel seems to be quite skilled and with Brandon being even better than her, they will also be challenges to defeat. Of course I'll be looking out for Champions and other Elites, but there must be other trainers who are doing well. What about Tobias? I haven't anything about him so far."

Nando nodded, "Yes, I heard he was competing, but I haven't much about him. He hasn't lost, and I don't think he's lost any Pokémon either, but he hasn't had any high profile battles to get his name heard."

The two continued to talk into the late hours of the night before Ash realized the time, "Well Nando, this has been a great talk. No one else seems to be able to talk to me without prying for details about what I've been doing for the past three years. Talking to you is a great change of pace. However, it's getting late and I think I'm going to head back to the Pokémon Center for the night. Check my opponent for tomorrow and get some rest."

Nando nodded, "Of course, a good idea. If you don't mind, I think I'll sleep right here by the lake."

Ash shook his head, "Go ahead, I don't mind. If you're still here in the morning though, I'll wake you up."

"Well then, good night Ash, and good luck with the rest of the tournament."

Ash nodded, "You too Nando. I hope we get to battle at some point, I'm sure it would be a great battle."

With that, Ash walked out of the clearing and into the forest. Once out of sight of Nando, Ash's Pokémon came up to him and Ash recalled them before heading to the Pokémon Center.

When he arrived, he noted that the Center was almost deserted. The nurse at the counter looked up at him, "Well, you're back late Five. Everyone else already went off to bed for the night, what has kept you up so late?"

Ash shrugged, "I got wrapped up in a conversation with an old friend. Anyways, are tomorrow's battles posted yet?"

The nurse nodded, "Yeah, they're right over there on the display board."

Ash followed the nurse's outstretched arm and walked over to the display board before scanning for his name. After looking for half a minute, he finally found it.

He saw his opponents name and shrugged, some guy named Brick Buster. He didn't know what kind of name that was, but he'd never heard of him before. Ash turned back to the nurse, "Thank you and good night."

The nurse nodded and Ash turned to head up to his room. As he reached his floor, he saw Scott standing in front of his door. Ash walked over and sighed, "Hey Scott, what can I do for you?"

Scott turned and grinned, "Well there you are. I was wondering why you weren't answering when I knocked. Anyways, you filled out all the forms I gave you, but you left a few things blank. You still need to pick what kind of a battle facility you want as well as where you want it to be located."

Ash nodded, "I know. I haven't decided yet though. I'll tell you by the end of the tournament."

Scott nodded, "Okay, sounds good." Then he got a mischievous smile on his face, "So, Five, on an unrelated note, I see you've been spending quite a bit of time with Anabel, is there any reason in particular for that?"

Ash's face turned red and he turned away, "Not really, she's just a friend. Anyways, I need to get some sleep for tomorrow, don't want to be too exhausted to battle."

Scott laughed, "Of course, or course. Then again, I'm pretty sure you could defeat your next opponent in your sleep. He's good, but no better than the first two people you battled in this tournament. He already has one loss, so you could knock him out with a win tomorrow. Anyways, get back to me with your answers and good luck with the tournament."

After he finished speaking, Scott turned and walked off, leaving Ash alone. Ash then went into his room and released his Pokémon. "Well guys, we have our next opponent for tomorrow. Some guy named Brick Buster. For some reason, I feel like he's going to be using Fighting type Pokémon. Anyways, Staraptor, you're up tomorrow, now get some sleep."

**BAM! I finished it. Finally. This chapter was way harder to write than it should have been. **

**This chapter is 19,000 words, but I probably typed close to 35,000 words in order to complete this. I typed up 11,000 words before deciding I hated what I had written. I then got rid of May knowing that Five is Ash and deleted all of that from this chapter. I then tried to continue writing it, but the chapter felt hollow. To combat that, I deleted the whole thing and started over again. **

**Anyways, I'm not going to complain about it because I enjoy writing, this chapter was just more trouble than I'd expected. **

**I wanted to have this chapter finished a while ago, but a few things came up. One thing was that I got sucked into One Piece. Again. That wasted a few days' worth of writing. Then, I got sick to the point that I couldn't type for a day and a half. Anyways, no excuses for being so late with this chapter, so I apologize for the wait. I'm going to be gone for 10 days on vacation, so I might not be able to update for another two weeks. After that though, I'm back for good and should be able to update consistently until I finish this story.**

**Also, I was tempted to make this chapter closer to 30,000 words long, but in the end I decided to just delay some of Ash's past for future chapters. I also left out Anabel's battle, but you'll hear about that in the next chapter. **

**For Ash's battles, he'll use Staraptor in his next fight and then Porygon-Z in the last one of the preliminaries. Lucario will be used in the first fight of the second stage.**

**Anyways, next chapter will have more of what Ash did against Team Rocket. Hopefully you like it.**

**Also, for those who don't know, I started my second story a little bit ago. The first chapter is up and the second one should go up the next time I get a chance to update, probably in about two weeks, the same time I update this story again. **

**Thank you all for the reviews and PM's you send, they do help to keep me writing.**

**Like always, leave anything you want to say in a review or PM. I do my best to respond to them.**

**Until the next time I update, stay safe and don't blow yourself up with fireworks.**

**Published 7/3/2012**


End file.
